LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



¥? — &m 



% — 



Shelf _-_.^.u % 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




From Boston to Bareilly 



AND BACK. 



\SriLLlAM BUTLER. 



1^ 

V 



r^l 



"Earth's fairest realms in clearest Teen 
Stretched out to the amplest reach of ;pros;pect lay, 
Q^he eye might there command, wherever stood 
City of old, or modern fame, the seat 
Of mightiest empire from, the destined walls 
Of Camtalu, seat of Gathaian Khan, 
jfind Bamarcand hy Oxus, QHmur's throne, 
(To (PeTcin of Bincean Kings, and thence 
Q!o :fi.gra and JLahor of great J£oghul, 
Qown to the golden Chersonese." 

Milton's Para-dibb Lost, Book XI. 



NOV 21 ie?rAy 

New York: ^<^^ ksm\^ 

PHILLIPS & HUNT. 



Cincinnati : 

CRANSTON & STOWE. 

1885. 



Copyright, 1885, by 
PHILLIPS & HUNT, 

New York. 



> 



(^ h^ ^ 




s^^ 



r 



THIS BOOK 

TO THE HON. JACOB SLEEPER, 
"CHAPLAIN" C. C. McCABE, D.D., 

AND TO THOSE OTHER KIND FRIENDS WHO UNITED WITH THEM IN FURNISHING 

THE MEANS WHICH CONFERRED UPON THE WRITER, HIS WIFE, AND 

DAUGHTER THE PECULIAR AND EVER-TO-BE-REMEMBERED 

PRIVILEGE WHICH THE FOLLOWING PAGES 

ATTEMPT TO DESCRIBE, BY 

THE AUTHOR. 

Boston^ 1885. 



PREFACE. 



THIS work owes its origin to the kind suggestion 
of the Rev. J. H. Yincent, D.D. It has been 
my effort, in its preparation, to keep close to the 
ideal which he presented as to what should be its 
character and aim. I found it impracticable to finish 
the work at an earlier date, chiefly on account of the 
statistics ; but I feel satisfied that the reader will not 
regret the delay, when he comes to consider the 
value of the figures presented ; a large portion of 
which had to be referred to India for more careful 
verification. The privilege conferred upon the 
writer of this book was unique. After the expiration 
of twenty-seven years, those who sent him forth in 
1856, on the duty of founding a mission for their 
Church, concluded, in their generosity, to send him 
again, that he might witness its development, and 
rejoice over "what God had wrought" during the 
interval in the field which he had selected, and along 
the lines of labor which he then laid out for his 
associates and successors. 

Few founders of missions have been thus favored 
as to time and circumstance and the opportunity 
for reviewing their work. Perhaps not one among 



6 Pkeface. 

them has been so peculiarly privileged, in view of 
the extraordinary circumstances which attended the 
origin of our mission in the great Gangetic Yalley. 

The reader will excuse the occasional references 
which I had to make to my other work, The Land 
of the Veda, as this book is, in a sense, the sequel 
of that work. The Land of the Veda shows " what 
entering in " we had, and the immense resistance 
which Almighty God overcame in order to open 
the way for the Gospel which we had to plant 
there for him. This book shows the results which 
have been accomplished, and enables the Church 
to understand what is the outcome and answer to 
her liberality and prayers, and thus gives the 
facts by which she can contrast the fearful condi- 
tion of her mission field in India in 1856 with the 
blessed changes and results which it exhibits in 1884. 

It has been said that " truth is stranger than 
fiction." Of the assertion this book will furnish 
many illustrations. As a participator and eye-witness 
of most of the events described, it is a duty that I 
should not leave them unrecorded, and especially 
when I have been so highly favored as to revisit the 
scenes where they occurred, and review and rejoice 
over those victories for Christ and Christian civiliza- 
tion which the record of the first quarter of a cent- 
ury presents to the Church. 

William Eutler. 

38 Bromfield Street, Boston, Mass, 



FROM BOSTON TO BAREILLY. 



CHAPTEE I. 



" And some clays after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again 
and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the 
word of the Lord, and see how they do. . . . And [they] departed, 
being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God." Acts 
XV, 36, 40. 

BosTOi?5- April 5, 1883. — In the record of the pro- 
ceedings of the Kew England Annual Conference, 
held on this date in Bromfield Street Church, there 
occurs the following passage : 

When the name of Dr. William Butler was called, the pre- 
siding elder presented the following resolution, which was 
unanimously adopted by a rising vote : 

Besohed, That this Conference has heard with deep grati- 
tude of the intended visit of our brother. Dr. William Butler, 
and his devoted wife, to our missions in India, the scene 
where, under God, by labors, sacrifices, and devotion of the 
most truly apostolic type, they became the honored founders 
of that, among the largest and most prosperous of our Church 
missions. We rejoice that God has raised up to them friends 
who have so liberally contributed to enable them to enjoy 
this privilege; and we bid them the most hearty Godspeed, 
and assure them of our earnest prayers for their health and 
success in their undertaking and a safe return again to us. 



8 Feom Boston to Eakeilly. 

On this action tlie editor of Zion^s Herald was kind 
enougli to remark : 

One of the most interesting events of the present session of 
the New England Conference was the passage of the fraternal 
resolution in reference to the visit of Dr. and Mrs. William 
Butler to India during the coming year, and the responses 
made by them. We have rarely seen the Conference more 
moved than it was by the address of Dr. Butler, in which he 
referred to the remarkable religious progress since he entered 
alone the field of his mission in Northern India, and espe- 
cially to his providential escape in the Sepoy rebellion, and 
his witnessing of the sentence and execution of the great 
leader of it. Tears and subdued shouts bore witness to the 
deep emotions awakened by the magnetic power and elo- 
quence of the doctor's reminiscences. 

Amid that blessed scene how easy it was for the mind 
to rush back to the same ]^ew England Conference, 
when, on the morning of April 8, 1856, Bishop Janes 
presiding, I stood before that body to take my fare- 
well, and they listened and gazed upon me with tear- 
ful eyes, as I was about to go forth in their name to 
found a mission in the far East, but with no definite 
idea where it would be located, and with none there 
then to bid us welcome ! But ere we say more about 
that occasion, let us follow the present events, until 
they lead us back, as they surely will, by a wonderful 
line of providences, to that remarkable hour, twenty- 
seven years ago, in the city of Salem. The present 
first demands our attention. 

The Boston Methodist Preachers' Meeting passed 
resolutions as cordial as those of the Conference here 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 9 

given, and had even appointed tlieir presiding offi- 
cer and two of tlieir number to attend the farewell 
meeting in ISTew York, and then see us off from that 
port on the following morning. With similar kind- 
ness the 'New York Preachers' Meeting took action, 
appointed a committee of their number, with Dr. 
Curry as chairman, and arranged for two meetings, 
one in St. Paul's, l^ew York, and another in Sum- 
merfield Church, Brooklyn, as well as for the farewell 
meeting in Washington Square Church on the even- 
ing before we were to sail. This latter service was 
the crowning occasion of all. Bishop Harris pre- 
sided, and Drs. Keid and Fowler, the Missionary Sec- 
retaries, addressed the crowded audience, and con- 
gratulated "The Father and Mother of the Indian 
Mission," w^ho were thus so munificently privileged 
to go forth to visit the scene of their former labors, 
attended by the sympathy and blessings of the whole 
Church. The singing was inspiring, especially the 
new hymn, " The Church's Rallying Song," printed 
for the occasion and distributed among the audience. 
It was delightful to see the gifted authoress of the 
hymn, Fanny Crosby, herself in the congregation, 
her face aglow and her sightless eyeballs rolling with 
enthusiasm, as she sang, with the rest, her own grand 
words ; while J. P. Sweeney, the composer of the 
music, presided at the organ, and did justice to his 
own composition. ' Then Chaplain M'Cabe, sustained 
by W. J. Kirkpatrick, led that wonderful outburst 



10 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

of glorious song, in which a thousand voices united ! 
Perhaps heaven does not often hear from earth a 
more enthusiastic psean of Christian joj. 

It certainly ought to have inspired me when my 
turn came to speak to such an audience, and under 
such circumstances. But, though so well used to 
address public assemblies, and especially on the topic 
of Christian missions, I found myself so over- 
mastered by my emotions that I began to hope 
I should not be required to say any thing upon the 
occasion. 1 felt like one dazed, and wondering 
whether all this honor and these words of eulogy 
were not spoken of some one else than myself. 
But I was called, and had to address the audience ; 
my feelings overpowered me, and I realized how 
weak I was, and how unworthy of this commenda- 
tion. Beyond all former experience, I estimated how 
appropriate and safe was humility, and had a con- 
sciousness that the joy of heaven, and the words of 
approval from the lips of even the blessed Master 
himself, can best coexist with the most profound self- 
renunciation, and the entire and hearty ascriptions of 
all the honor and glory of whatever good is done to 
Him to whom alone the praise is due. "He that 
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Yet I could not 
but feel what compensation was here for the long and 
anxious responsibilities which I had tried conscien- 
tiously to bear for my Church and my God in that 
far-off land to which we were returning, and how on 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 11 

this glad occasion I was so amply repaid. We had 
then to take our stand in the altar, and for nearly an 
hour wife and daughter and myself had such a hand- 
shaking as we never knew before : and still the people 
lingered, and many a tearful " Good-bye " and " God 
bless you ! " were spoken. 

Next day, May 5, 1883, a large concourse of these 
sympathizing friends assembled at the " Anchor Line " 
pier, where the steamer Devonia lay ready for depart- 
ure. They soon tilled the saloon. Brother Cooper, 
on behalf of the Boston Preachers' Meeting, and 
Chaplain M'Cabe gave the farewell words, the warn- 
ing whistle sounded, and our friends passed to the 
wharf and remained there to see us off. Even then 
their wonderful kindness had not ended, for they held 
an informal consultation and agreed that if we wished 
to return home from India by China and Japan, they 
would furnish the additional funds to enable us to do 
so. Our beloved Brother M'Cabe (who, under God, 
originated this delightful trip for us) came, on their be- 
half, to the side of the ship, made the additional offer, 
and urged its acceptance. I promised to give it care- 
ful and grateful consideration during the voyage. 
But, while fully appreciating the interest and joy it 
would be sure to yield us, and especially to see our 
missions in China and Japan, we felt that we ought 
not to allow these kind friends to go to further ex- 
pense on our account, especially as the great privilege 
already conferred in this visit to our own mission 



12 Feom Boston to Babeilly. 

field was in itself an enjoyment so complete and sat- 
isfactory. 

A few minutes after three o'clock P. M. tlie last 
cable was let go, and the great ship moved into the 
river, and turned her head to her course. But as 
long as we could see that wharf, we could discern the 
waving handkerchiefs which signaled the loving 
benedictions of our noble friends. Thank God for 
true Christianity ! ISTothing else could create and 
consummate the privilege and the joy of such an 
hour as this. How fervently we prayed that night, 
in our sea-home, that God might remember every 
one, from first to last, who had united and sympa- 
thized in conferring upon us this great privilege and 
joy ! Surely if any thing could make an old mis- 
sionary superintendent feel young again, to be the 
center of a scene like this ought to do it. But the 
joy was deepened when I reflected upon the fact that 
was underlying it all, and that fact was, how much 
the Church must value her mission in India when 
she can thus so magnanimously treat the humble 
founders of that work ! We had no other claim 
to her consideration, and she was generous enough 
to consider this sufiicient. But the reader will kind- 
ly excuse all this talk about ourselves. We will pro- 
ceed to speak of the voyage, and one or two of its 
incidents. 

We had about eighty saloon passengers, mostly 
quiet people. There was very little drinking or loose 



Fkom Boston" to Baeeilly. 13 

language. We had no storms certainly, and the offi- 
cers said the " weather was fine," though there were 
many of our number, among the ladies especially, who 
concluded that these sea-faring people had a defini- 
tion of their own for the word " fine." When one 
goes on board an immense ship of this class, 4,279 tons 
burden, he cannot at first realize that any power less 
than a storm can make her heave up her great form 
and roll about as if she were a mere whale-boat. The 
reflecting mind. will naturally turn in such circum- 
stances to Him, the Almighty One, who has con- 
ferred this wondrous force upon these elements, 
whose play around you is so amazing, and gather 
comfort from the thought that there is more than 
power here. There is control and guidance of these 
forces by Him who "rides on the whirlwind and 
directs the storm." This justifies the prayer with 
which the anxious heart invokes his blessed protec- 
tion from the raging violence around, and the con- 
fident expectation of being brought in safety to "the 
desired haven." 

On the fourth day out we were crossing "the 
Banks," where the cod-fishing is carried on — a wild 
and exposed occupation, prosecuted amid perils of its 
own by our hardy " toilers of the sea." The locality 
where we were now fioating naturally suggested to 
the memory those queer lines which were found about 
two hundred years ago in the psalmody of the times : 
lines which, in these days of sweeter songs and 



14 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

perliaps of sweeter singers, make one wonder that sncli 
doggerel ever could have been tolerated for an hour 
by Christian people. The poet who perpetrated this 
amazing versification must have been at a great loss 
for illustration, if not for sense, when he allowed his 
imagination to lead him to " evolve from the depths 
of his inner consciousness " the following whimsical 
specimen of hymnology : 

" Ye monsters^ of the briny deep, 

Your Maker's praises spout ; 
Up from your sands, ye codlings, peep — 

And wag your tails about 1 " 

The remembrance of these queer lines was enough 
to make a man laugh, even though he were sea- 
sick. The laugh might have been longer and more 
relieving, too, as we lay there and held on, but for 
the untimely interference of the Devonia herself. 
For just here she had begun to act as though resolved 
to draw our attention from those codfish and that 
poetry to the contemplation of her own performances, 
with that great " tail " of hers, which, as it rose and 
fell, and went round and round, and " wagged " from 
side to side, showed how it could thrill and stir you 
up, until all your poetry was gone, and several otlier 
things along with it, and you had to conclude that the 
situation was not friendly to merriment, and all the 
more because this specimen of her ability to " wag 
her tail about " became more lively in its manifesta- 
tions, and was pertinaciously persisted in, as if to show 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 15 

how tliorouglilj it could be done, and what pleasure 
she took in doing it ! Still, in spite of her, we did 
have our little laugh, and concluded therefrom what 
a good tonic in sea-sickness a hearty laugh must be, 
and especiallj if you can have a few of them quickly 
after each other. On reaching the shore, and falhng 
in with an old antiquarian friend of mine, I inquired 
if he knew where the quotation before mentioned 
could be found. He promptly informed me that a 
copy of the book was in the library of Trinity Col- 
lege, Dublin, and offered to aid me in obtaining a 
sight of it. I did not need his assurance that the 
quotation, though in a version of the Psalms, had no 
authorization from the sacred Hebrew. Of course 
not. God's holy Book never violates good taste or 
utters any thing preposterous, nor should it be held 
responsible for the human errors which some of its 
expositors, poets, and painters have committed. I 
did not accept my friend's assistance in searching for 
the book. 

Our careful captain had chosen a southerly course 
to avoid meeting with icebergs, and until the fifth 
day, when in latitude 42° 23' and longitude 51° 03', 
we did not sight any. But early that morning one 
was passed, and three more before midday, all of 
them, however, away to the north and quite a distance 
from us. But about three o'clock in the afternoon 
one was discerned right on our course. The after- 
noon was fine, sea-sickness was forgotten, and all 



16 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

crowded on deck to see that great sight. Every eye 
was soon fixed upon it, though we required more 
than an hour and a half to come abreast of it. It was, 
to the passengers at least, an awful sight, and we 
shuddered at the thought of our great ship rushing 
on to collision with such an object in the darkness of 
the night. Here was explanation enough why some 
vessels have never been heard of after leaving port. 
This berg seemed almost a cube in shape. We dis- 
cussed its dimensions and sought information from 
the officers. It was generally agreed that it was 
about four hundred feet long on the sides and per- 
haps over one hundred feet high! Though I had 
crossed the Atlantic six times, I never before had an 
opportunity of seeing an iceberg, and now, to see one 
so large and so near, was quite an event. The afternoon 
sun was shining upon the tall side, and made it look 
as brijliant in its majesty as it was terrible. To crash 
into that cold mass would be as sure destruction as to 
strike any precipice that overhangs the sea, with the 
additional horror that there might not be the most 
distant chance of help or escape, and that the sur- 
rounding waters, which would engulf the unhappy pas- 
sengers, in their intensity of cold would freeze them 
to death in a few moments. Although we were so far 
away, the increasing cold which emanated from it in 
the air and in the sea, changed all the conditions 
around us. Our ship was kept not less than a mile 
and a quarter south of it, and our careful officers had 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. IT 

been all day testing the water and the air every half- 
hour. By such process they are able, in the darkness 
of the night, to discover the nearness of such a danger, 
and so may decide upon requisite precautions. Half 
an hour before we came abreast of this berg the water 
was found to register 54°, while abreast of it the 
mercury had fallen to 38° and the air had become 
nearly 10° colder than it was half an hour previous. 
Half an hour after passing (say six miles) the con- 
ditions corresponded with what they were one hour 
before. Such was the chill created on the outer rim 
of a circle that was two and a half miles in diameter. 
The reader can imagine how the thermometer would 
register half a mile or a full mile nearer, and what it 
would likely be by its side. 

We also had discussions as to what proportion of 
this mountain of ice must have been below the sur- 
face, in order to sustain the huge dimensions which 
towered up above the water. The displacement 
seemed to us almost incredible. Although the com- 
position of the berg is said to include great masses of 
compacted snow, the specific gravity of whicli is not 
equal to the rest, and that the whole mass is not, 
therefore, as hard and consistent as the ice blocks with 
which we cool our summer beverages ; yet, after mak- 
ing all allowance for this, let any one contemplate a 
piece of ice as it floats 'in his tumbler of water, and 
he may gain some adequate idea of the colossal pro- 
portions of this mountain of submerged ice, which 



18 Feom Boston to Bareillt. 

could float and sustain to one hundred feet above the 
water this fearful object, which for three hours we 
watched with such intense interest. It was generally 
agreed that at least seven eighths of the whole mass 
must have been under the surface. If this calcula- 
tion be correct, then this mountain of ice must have 
been eight hundred feet high from bottom to top ! 
It impressed us as having such power of resistance to 
the sun that it would require years of time to melt it 
down, especially as the reserve below wonld come to 
the surface as fast as the top portion melted away. 
And so, perhaps, it would, were it not for the pro- 
vision made by the Almighty to have the warm south 
wind concur with the gulf stream to act on the enor- 
mous mass. How long this one had been floating 
around, or where it came from, who can tell ! But, 
what a sight it must have been when it first let go 
its fastenings within the Arctic regions, and tore its 
thundering way down those eternal hills of ice and 
dashed into the deep and astonished ocean ! 

Yet this enormous mass was only one of those 
" morsels " from his " treasuries," to which the Lord 
God Almighty referred when he showed Job his ut- 
ter insignificance, by asking him, " Where wast thou 
when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, 
if thou hast understanding. Hast thou entered into 
the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the 
treasures of the hail ? Out of whose womb came the 
ice ? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 19 

it ? " Job xxxviii, 4, 22, 29. Or again, in David, 
" lie casteth forth his ice like morsels : who can stand 
before his cold ? He sendeth out his word, and melt- 
eth them : he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters 
flow." Psa. cxlvii, 17, 18. A Christia,n has a clear 
right here to draw attention to the fact, that his Holy 
Scriptures shine out with an original and permanent 
light and knowledge, unshared and unapproached by 
any, even the most ancient of human compositions. 
The Yedas, for instance, of the land to which we were 
going, tliough the most venerable of them all, has no 
wide sweep of vision to include such facts. They are 
local and limited in their allusions, and even their ad- 
mirers have to admit their monotony, and their worth- 
lessness to mankind. Brought into contact with these 
great facts of nature, or science, or of human ex- 
perience, they shrink, like so many owls, back to the 
silence and the darkness of the ruins where they have 
dwelt so long, unable to endure the light or the ques- 
tionings to which our modern knowledge and civiliza- 
tion would subject them. But this blessed word of 
God, more venerable still than they, is as fully adap- 
ted to the illumination and discoveries of the cent- 
uries after Christ, as it was to the knowledge and 
civilization of the centuries before him. From the 
first it boldly accepted, in its utterances, all risks 
of the future^ assured that no development of nat- 
ure or man would ever be able to antiquate its ut- 
terances. This was a wonderful risk to assume, and 



20 Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

that, toOj in a world where there was so much change 
inevitable, and at a time which was merely the early 
dawn of knowledge. But the Bible could afford to 
do all this, because it was written with divine fore- 
knowledge. To-day, fairly interpreted, it transcends, 
as fully as it ever did, the highest attainments and 
experiences of the human race, and no doubt it will 
continue to march ahead of all true development until 
time shall be no more. 

Here is as keen a test and as critical an appeal to 
facts as even its foes might desire. The quotations 
which I have just given were first spoken to men 
more than three thousand years ago on the plains of 
Mesopotamia or the hills of Judea — men who never 
saw an iceberg, and never gazed upon even the outer 
circle of that awful Arctic, whose interior secrets are 
still only known to Him who made them. Even our 
own hardy and inquisitive race, with all its appli- 
ances for discovery and endurance, realizes keenly 
its impotence, and the limit of its power and knowl- 
edge, in the presence of these mysteries. Again 
and again it has made heroic and desperate ef- 
forts to penetrate and explore them. Alas ! their 
frozen bodies and deserted ships on its outer mar- 
gin are the ghastly evidence of its inability to pene- 
trate those reserved secrets of the great God. Their 
very failure is additional evidence of the perpet- 
ual truth of His holy word, which thus still main- 
tains its indisputable right to "hide pride from 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 21 

man," and to challenge liis profound and intelligent 
humility, as lie stands in a presence like this, and 
reflects upon that unexplored birthplace of these 
mysterious "wanderers of the sea." So that an- 
cient revelation, and nature's amazing manifesta- 
tions, and the true philosophy which reverently con- 
templates both, combined to inculcate the duty of 
adoration of that awful, but glorious Being, whose 
wisdom and resources are so unsearchable and past 
finding out, that, in this supreme independence of us 
and of our judgments concerning him and his ways, 
he can afford to make the visible operations and 
forces of nature to become merely "the hiding of 
his power." We bow in reverence before Him and 
exclaim, " Thou art the God that doest wonders : 
thou hast declared thy strength among the people. 
. . . Tliy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great 
waters, and thy footsteps are not known ! " 

As the sun went down we gladly parted company 
with our fearful visitant, thanking God for our safety ; 
but never shall we forget the wonderful scene on which 
we so intently gazed that day. l^ext morning, no 
other icebergs being visible, and the Great Bank 
having been crossed, our course was altered more to 
tlie north-east, but the chilly winds which soon poured 
down from the icy north made warmer clothing very 
necessary to our comforf. 

On the second Sabbath the sea was calm enough 
to permit us to hold divine service. The scene was 



22 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

very interesting. Part of tlie congregation occupied 
the upper saloon, where the organ was, and looked 
down, as from a gallery, upon the preacher and the 
rest of the audience in the dining saloon below. 
Beautiful flowers and creeping plants festooned the 
sides, and ran across, and among them hung the 
cages of canary birds. The singing of the hymns 
was sweet, and a very gracious influence rested upon 
the audience. How appropriate were the words, 
" The sea is his, and he made it : and his hands formed 
the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down : 
let us kneel before the Lord our maker." 

On the evening of the tenth day our gentlemanly 
captain informed us that before midnight we should 
see the first light on the north-west coast of Ireland, 
and we remained up to behold the welcome sight. 
Early next morning we ran into Lough Foyle, and 
landed the mails and passengers for Londonderry. 
We then skirted later the Giant's Causeway and the 
islands, entered the Clyde, with its historic scenery, 
and at three P. M. reached Greenock. As we ap- 
proached the pier, there stood James Young, smiling 
his hearty welcome down upon us, the same kindly 
face which, along with that of William Stewart, 
shone out its welcome at the landing-place at Cal- 
cutta on our arrival in India, September 22, 1856. 
Here he was, twenty-seven years later, to repeat the 
same kindness, and conduct us to his hospitable 
Scottish home on the other side of this beautiful bay. 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 23 

Thank God for Christian friendship ! But how good 
and grateful we should be to prove at all worthy 
of those loving attentions on both sides of the 
Atlantic ! 

After a delightful visit to Helen sburg and the 
Scottish capital, I crossed over to Ireland in company 
with my oldest clerical friend, Rev. John Hay, to 
visit the scenes where we began our ministry together 
in the centenary year of British Methodism. We 
had, of course, a blessed time, full of suggestive and 
grateful memories. From there I went to Dublin, 
my native city, and to the locality where my religious 
life began. I then recrossed the Irish Sea to Liver- 
pool, and one of the first things I did was to visit St. 
John's market, to find out the spot so memorable to me 
for what occurred there forty-six years before. Had 
it not been for that event I should probably never 
have seen America, and this journey could not have 
occurred. This, then, to me is memorable ground. 
Hither my thoughts have frequently returned, and 
here now the divine voice seemed to say, "Thou 
shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God 
[hath] led thee these forty years," etc. 

In view of its importance to me, and in the grateful 
duty to recognize the links which have connected that 
hour with this in a blessed chain of providences, which 
included my becoming an American citizen and a 
Methodist Episcopal minister, and founder of American 
Methodist missions in India and Mexico, I am here led 



24 From Boston to Bareilly. 

back to review life and its results, with special refer- 
ence to these facts, then so unexpected. I trust my 
readers will excuse me in taking a few pages to 
indulge these personal reminiscences. God may make 
the record profitable to them, as it certainly will be to 
myself. It was on this spot, one Sunday afternoon in 
August, 1839, that I first made an attempt to preach 
the Gospel. The duty was performed with much mis- 
giving ; but by His grace I have been enabled to con- 
tinue proclaiming his truth from then till now. Per- 
haps I may not be assuming too much if I modestly 
suppose that God had some special work that I could 
do, and that, " when he called me by his grace," it 
was with the expectation that I should do that work 
for him. Yet without that " revelation of his Son in 
me" w^hich took place a few weeks before I first stood 
here, I should have been both unfit and unwilling to 
be led forth to such a duty. 

The reader will mark how, step by step, my narrative 
will lead me back again to Boston, to find there that 
necessary providential development which includes all 
the justification for this present joyous journey, the 
account of which I must now suspend for a few pages, 
until we are brought round once more to this city and 
can resume it. I ought to add here that I have but 
seldom given in detail the facts which I am about to 
narrate, and never before wrote them out. I do so now 
at the earnest request of some friends whose judgment 
I have reason to respect, and who wish to have them 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 25 

embodied in the book, which they had ah-eady sug- 
gested should be the outcome of this journey. I 
ought no longer to have any hesitation in doing this, 
as it is now evident enough to myself that these 
facts show how and why it happened that, under the 
divine guidance and calling, I became the founder of 
the mission in India. This being so (as I presume 
the narrative will evidence), the facts in question are 
no longer private and personal to myself, they belong 
to the Church of God, whose servant I became, so 
far as she may choose to be interested in them, as 
marking the hand of God in the history and agency 
of her precious work in Hindustan. The narrative 
will also teach a lesson on the duty of personal effort 
for the salvation of others, which I trust God will 
bless, and especially to my lady readers. 

While lately in Dublin I went to visit a tomb in the 
Mount Jerome Cemetery. That tomb contains the 
dust of a saint who will yet arise in glory, and whose 
blessed face I shall see again with joy. Eleven miles 
south of that tomb there is a little valley, where I 
first saw that face. I went once more from the tomb to 
that valley, on this the last occasion when I can hope 
to visit it, and there for a few days I have been living 
my life over again. Forty- seven years ago my home 
was here. I was then in my nineteenth year, and 
was regarded by my friends as a moral young man, 
and considered, by myself at least, as a Christian. I 
had been from childhood connected with the Episco- 



26 From Boston to Bareilly. 

pal Church, an attendant on its services and Sunday- 
school, and diligent in all its duties, so that I 
" profited above many " of my class associates, and 
bore off, because of my superior knowledge of the 
word of God, several of the valuable premiums in the 
yearly examinations. I was praised and encouraged, 
and became zealous for my Church. No doubt of the 
safety and graciousness of my condition had ever 
entered my mind. I was taught, and I believed it, 
that in baptism " I was made a member of Christ, a 
child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of 
heaven." What more could I need ? I regarded 
myself as safe for eternity. Had any one asked " a 
reason of the hope that was in me," or why I laid 
this flattering unction to my soul so confidently, I 
would have appealed to the book and replied. My 
Catechism tells me so ; I was made all this " in my 
baptism." The bald Komanism of the statement, 
its doctrine of baptismal regeneration, I was not 
then intelligent enough to understand. Yet on this 
unscriptural dogma I was risking all my future wel- 
fare. Of repentance, faith in the 'Lord Jesus, the 
new birth, or the witness of the Spirit, I knew 
nothing, and had never heard. Truly 

" A form of godliness was mine, 
The power I never knew." 

How trustingly I clung to the teaching of my 
prayer book, and, no doubt, would have clung to it, 
living or dying, to the last, not imagining that there 



From Boston to Baeeillt. 27 

could have been dangerous error in it. So, had 
death itself come, I was there instructed, in " The 
Visitation of the Sick," to send for my minister (as- 
suming that there was time to do so) and make my 
confession, and he — this mistaken and presumptuous 
mortal — would have stood by my bedside and uttered 
these awful words : " Our Lord Jesus Christ hath left 
power to his Church to absolve all sinners — and, by 
his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from 
all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost ! " All this, according 
to the requirement there, "I steadfastly believed." 
I knew no other gospel save this diluted Romanism. 
No other was within my reach. 'No evangelical min- 
istry of any dissenting denomination was within a 
dozen miles of my home. 

I look back upon these circumstances with most 
painful remembrance, yet, I hope, with entire freedom 
from denominational bigotry. I was intensely loyal 
to my Church. Nothing short of the most serious 
consideration could have detached me from her com- 
munion. Changing one's Church relations is seldom 
justified by any thing less than realizing greater help 
in the religious life, or a larger opportunity of Chris- 
tian usefulness. But I have never doubted the course 
I was then led to take in this matter. How could I 
do so ? Here I was, like hundreds around me, sitting 
under a State-Church'ministry which, year after year, 
left us unawakened to a sense of our guilt and dan- 



28 FnoM Boston to Baeeilly. 

ger, and not only so, but wliicli, as in mj own case, 
when God, by another agency and the help of his 
holy word, enabled me to discover my state, actually 
discouraged — I might almost say persecuted — me, be- 
cause I was trying to find the light which they had 
never shed upon me. They were disgusted that I 
should discredit, by my doubts, " the new birth " 
which they said I had received in my baptism, and 
which, they asserted, was further ratified to me when 
the Bishop laid his hands upon my head in " con- 
firmation." Yet, when awakened, I was not able to 
find any evidence, save this clerical assertion, that any 
such change had ever passed upon me. But I could 
not afford to make a mistake here, for eternity was 
involved. I had begun to feel through all my being 
that I '^ must be born again " — must have " the inward 
and spiritual grace," without which "the outward 
and visible sign " was nothing to me but a few drops 
of water. Alas ! I knew that I had not this regener- 
ation of the Holy Spirit, for the " grace " and " the 
fruits" of the Spirit are inseparable, and I feared, 
and soon came to know, that these fruits were not in 
me. 

My religious guides were as confused as was Nico- 
demus when our Lord preached the doctrine of the 
new birth to him, and proved to his conscience that 
he was ignorant of it, though he was " a master in 
Israel." This question is vital to the ministry and 
membership of every Church on earth. How terrible 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 29 

that men should dare to enter the ministry of any 
one of them as a mere '' profession," by which to earn 
a: "respectable" living ! If unconverted themselves, 
how can tliev lead their unsaved hearers to salvation ? 
while, as unconverted, they are certainly uncalled 
of God to this holy office, no matter what their other 
qualifications may be. Yet these are the men who, 
in their presumption, I have heard so often talk loft- 
ily of their superior, and, indeed, exclusive, " holy or- 
ders," derived from their " apostolical succession " — 
that miserable Eomish fable — and who could speak 
contemptuously of what they were pleased to call 
" the unauthorized ministry" of other men : men who 
had, nevertheless, the divine seal upon their ministry, 
and whose " proofs of apostleship" — and they needed 
no other — were the souls which they had saved and 
edified, and would yet present, as their " glory and 
joy," before the throne of God. I had begun to un- 
derstand that common sense concurred with Bible 
teaching on this question. If a man trusts a preten- 
tious lawyer, he can only lose his property if wrongly 
advised ; or, an unskillful physician, he risks only 
health and life ; but, if he be guided by an uncon- 
verted clergyman, he adventures his soul's eternal 
welfare, with the liability of finding himself and this 
" blind leader of the blind " at last " fallen together 
into the ditch " of hopeless misery ! How carefully 
should the Churches of God guard the door which 
admits to their ministry, and see to it that, whatever 



30 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

other qualification their candidates have or have not, 
thej shall have at least the experimental piety which 
will enable them to guide poor awakened souls more 
safely than I was guided forty-seven years ago, when 
they 60 confidently cried "Peace, peace,'' where God 
had not spoken it. Had I been left to them I should 
probably have perished in my sins. 

But, a compassionate God was preparing another 
agency to undeceive me, to open my eyes, and turn 
me from darkness to light, that I might receive for- 
giveness of my sins, and an inheritance among them 
that are sanctified, all through the instrumentality 
of that blessed woman from whose tomb I have just 
returned. How heartily I may thank God that she 
herself had found what she was so soon to teach me. 
But how she was led out of darkness similar to my 
own to that attainment, is an essential part of this 
narrative, and will illustrate the grace of God in a 
wonderful manner. 

This precious lady belonged to the upper circles of 
society. Her husband had been member of Parlia- 
ment for the University of Dublin, and was at this 
time one of her majesty's Judges. She was well qual- 
ified, by her many accomplishments, for adorning the 
position which they occupied. She loved worldly 
splendor and the gayety of fashionable life, and yet 
regarded herself as a Christian, and was very regular 
in her attendance at church and sacraments. Being 
fond of the harp, and wishing to perfect herself in 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 31 

its use, she hired a professional harper to instruct 
her. Tliis harper was a Welshman, and one of the most 
unique persons I ever saw. He was very small in 
size, entirely blind, dressed with scrupulous neatness 
in black, and wore a white cravat. His hair, as white 
as snow, hung down on his shoulders, and he looked 
like what we might suppose one of the ancient bards 
to have been. He attended twice a week to give the 
lessons. It was a beautiful picture to see the lovely 
little man, with the harp towering above him, as he 
sat and discoursed that sweet music ; and she would 
listen, then take her place and submit herself to his 
instruction and the requisite criticism upon her per- 
formance. 

He was a saintly man, but she knew it not. He 
had not yet ventured to converse with her upon the 
subject of religion, and probably may have had an 
apprehension that her High-Churchism would lead her 
to resent any effort of that kind as an intrusion. But, 
one Monday morning, when taking her lesson, she 
paused, and, turning toward him, said, in her own 
rapid and impulsive manner, " O, Mr. Lewis, I heard 
such a magnificent sermon yesterday from Mr. M. 
It was so grand ! Who did you hear, sir ? Where 
did you go ? " He paused, fearing his answer would 
not please her " Church " notions. She perceived his 
hesitation, and then insisted, in a half-earnest, half- 
playful manner, on being informed where he went 
and who he heard. He saw " the cross " was reached 



32 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

and that he must take it up. So, lifting his heart to 
God for help, he quietly answered, '' Madam, I went 
to the Methodist chapel, and heard a Methodist 
preacher." She broke out in such a hearty peal of 
laughter, and exclaimed, '' The idea, Mr. Lewis, that 
you should go among those Methodists ! " And then 
she overflowed again with her fun at his expense and 
want of judgment " to go among those Methodists ! " 
Poor soul, she knew nothing of them, and thus only 
expressed her prejudice. But her curiosity was 
awakened, and she urged him further, saying, " Come, 
now, Mr. Lewis, I must insist on knowing whi/ you 
went among such people, for I understand that they 
are very fanatical and ignorant ! " Again he lifted 
his heart to God for help and replied, " Madam, will 
you listen patiently while I tell you ?" '' Certainly," 
she said ; " I want to know all about it." He then 
began and told her how he had gone among these 
people, and had there heard, for the first time in his 
life, the Scripture doctrine of a conscious salvation, 
and how to obtain " a good hope through grace." As 
he spoke the grateful tears flowed down his face, and 
he looked the joy which he described. She did not 
lose a word. She could gaze into his sightless coun- 
tenance and note the whole expression, and, as she 
looked and listened to the wonderful story, her own 
heart was opening with deep feeling to the truth. 
She felt that he was sincere. Seeing the peace of 
God on his beautiful countenance, she began to 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 33 

realize that lie. had found something more in the 
Christian religion than she herself had ever known. 
But when he came to speak of his joyous hope that, 
ere long, he would be done with the things of earth, 
and God would open his eyes — which had never 
looked upon this world — to behold the glories of eter 
nity and to " see the King in his beauty," her tears 
were flowing in honest sympathy with his joy. Be- 
fore he had finished his simple narration of " w^hat 
God had done for his soul," she had settled down into 
the resolution that she must know more about these 
despised " Methodists," and would find out for her- 
self if there was reasonable and scriptural justifica- 
tion for such confidence and such happiness as her 
harper had expressed that morning. She ascertained 
from him where this Methodist chapel was situated 
(they then used the word chapel for their places of 
worship in Ireland) and the hour of service, and, as 
they parted, she said a few appreciative words to him, 
and he knew that he had not lost her good-will by 
his candid statement that forenoon. 

On Saturday evening she ordered her coachman to 
have the carriage at the door next morning in time. 
It was done, and when she stepped in she surprised 
the footman who attended her, by telling him to 
direct the coachman to drive her to the Methodist 
chapel in Whitefriars Street. To the amazement of 
the frequenters of this place of worship (built by Mr. 
"Wesley himself) the splendid equipage, drawn by 



34 Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

four bay horses, stopped at the door, and the elegant 
lady stepped out, entered, and took a seat in the 
front of the gallery. It is probable that the preacher 
was the Rev. Gideon Ouseley (a name famons in 
Irish Methodism). She had never before seen a min- 
ister in the pulpit without gown and bands, nor a 
service conducted without the use of the prayer 
book. It was all novel to her. But there was a 
heartiness in the service that pleased her, and the 
sermon found its way into her soul and gave her more 
light than she had before. She returned home deeply 
impressed, and began to pray earnestly to God to help 
her to understand what true religion was. The fol- 
lowing Saturday, in giving her orders, she told tlio 
coachman to have the carriage ready next morning, 
but to "leave off the leaders" — two horses would b3 
sufficient to take her. Her worldly pride was being 
crucified, and she was becoming " lowly in heart." 
This was naore evident a week later, when she in- 
formed the coachman she would not require the 
carriage next morning. She would walk to the serv- 
ice (as she did ever after), but that she wished him 
to attend her, carrying her Bible and hymn book ; 
her object being to bring him, also, under the sound of 
the Gospel. 

She now invited the Methodist ministers to call 
upon her, that she might receive further instruction 
and have them pray with her, and place in her hands 
suitable books on the subject of salvation. This was 



Fbom Boston to Bareilly. 35 

done, and she soon read " William Carvosso's Life " 
and " The Life and Letters of Hester Ann Rogers," 
and similar works on Christian experience. So faith- 
fully did she follow the instructions given, that she was 
ere long gloriously converted, to the great joy of her 
dear old harper. But she did not rest in that where- 
unto she had now attained. Like Miss Frances 
Ridley Havergal, (may God increase the number of 
such Christians in that old Church !) she was led, by 
her earnest love of holiness, to inquire if there was 
not something more in Christianity for her to receive, 
beyond the blessings that came to her in this " new 
birth ? " She rejoiced to be assured that there was a 
higher life, a perfect love, a state of entire sanctifica- 
tion into which it was now her blessed privilege to 
enter, and be " saved to the uttermost." With be- 
coming earnestness she sought this " second blessing," 
and soon entered upon its enjoyment. Henceforth 
her life became one of the most lovely patterns of 
" the beauty of holiness." And now, to lead others 
to the attainment of what she had herself found, 
became her daily effort and her greatest joy. Her 
first desire was for her husband's salvation, and he, 
seeing what divine grace had done for her, submitted 
himself to her guidance, and sought the Lord on his 
OAvn behalf, and a few weeks after they were rejoic- 
ing as "heirs together of the grace of life." He 
became a true Christian ; a family altar was estab- 
lished in that household and kept up to the close of 



36 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

life. All tlie influence of his position was thrown 
henceforth on the side of evangelical religion and the 
moral reforms of that day, including the temperance 
cause. Then her friends and her servants became 
objects of her solicitude, with gracious results in 
many instances. 

Such was the help that God was so soon to send 
to me. Shortly after these events, and with special 
references to her delicate health, her husband pur- 
chased a beautiful country home near where I lived, 
and there she continued her efforts to do good. Soon 
after their arrival one of my young friends said to me, 
" St. Yalori House has been purchased by one of the 
Judges, and his wife is a great Methodist. She is in 
the habit of walking out every morning, and takes 
tracts with her, and talks to people whom she meets 
about religion." This was the first time that I had 
even heard the word " Methodist,*' and asked my 
friend what it meant ? He sneeringly replied, 
" Why, a Methodist is one who actually believes they 
can know their sins forgiven and be assured of the 
favor of God ! " He uttered this sarcastically, to 
show how fanatical such people must be ; but his 
words took a singular hold on my heart, and led me 
to reflect much upon them during the day. I knew 
they did not describe my condition, and I wondered 
whether they truly described the condition of any one 
in this world, these Methodists or any one else ? 
But there was a rebound, and my religious pride was 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 37 

alarmed. I found myself sincerely hoping that I 
should not fall into her hands or be talked to by her. 
I did not wish to be disturbed as to my religious 
condition. On inquiring as to her appearance, she 
Avas represented to me as tall, refined, and delicate 
lookino". It was sinerular how uncomfortable I be- 
came by the presence of this " Methodist " in our 
neighborhood, and how much I began to fear that I 
might come in contact with her, and that she might 
talk to me about my religious state. 

It was only a few mornings after this conversation 
that I rose earlier than usual to attend to some busi- 
ness, and going along the road near St. Yalori, I saw 
her coming toward me, attended by her maid. From 
the description I felt assured this must be the lady ! 
I at once slackened my pace in order to get time to 
decide what I should do to escape. The wall on either 
side of the road was over six feet high, and I could 
not jump over. It looked cowardly to turn back and 
escape by walking away from her, so I concluded to 
take the alternative which remained, that, as the side- 
walk was fully five feet wide, I would, as we ap- 
proached each other, step to the very outside limit 
and leave her a wide berth to pass on. Quickening 
my steps, to carry out my purpose, as I came near I 
saw, to my confusion, that she did not intend to move 
off to the inside, but w^s going to stop in the 
center of the path, and so gently bar my way ! She 
afterward told me, that before I reached her, the 



38 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

Spirit of God seemed to say to her heart, " Speak to 
this young man." So, as she stopped, I had no alter- 
native but to do the same, and then I ventured to lift 
my eyes and look at her. How amazed 1 was, and 
ashamed as well, that I should have imagined her 
— "this Methodist '^ — something of a horror, to be 
afraid of on meeting ! How sweet her face was, and 
such a smile ! She could not but see that I was 
alarmed at her presence, and that I looked rather 
wild. But she spoke, and said in such a gentle way, 
and in tones that I shall never forget, " Good-morn- 
ing, young man ; may I say a few words to you ? " 
My trepidation at once calmed down, and I looked 
again at that saintly face, and answei^ed, "Yes, 
madam, you may say whatever you wish." She saw 
that she had gained her first point, and stepped nearer, 
till she could touch my sleeve with that white hand, 
so thin and wasted by the incipient consumption 
which four years after was to lay her in the grave. 

She then said, " I want to ask you this question, 
Do you pray ? " Had she asked me. Do you say your 
prayers? I could have answered with great confi- 
dence. But she did not say or mean that, though 
herself an Episcopalian, and well acquainted with the 
prayer book. I had never offered an extempore 
prayer — could not have done it. My heart had not 
learned to utter its own cry to God according to its 
own feelings. I had only repeated the language of 
other people, w^liether it fully expressed my own con- 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 39 

dition or not. It was wonderful what clearness tliere 
was in lier question, how the Spirit of God carried 
her meaning into my mind. Each sentence that 
she liad uttered liad that unction which accompanies 
the words of one who lives in close communion witli 
God. So, tliough in such darkness, I saw at once 
what she meant when she asked me if I prajed. 
Being too manly to tell a falsehood, I promptly an- 
swered, "No, madam, I do not." She drew a deep 
sigh, and then said, "Well, if you don't pray, what 
is to hecome of your soulf'' Up to that hour I had 
supposed that my soul was all right, that I was safe 
for eternity. But her question went through my 
heart, and woke me up to a suspicion, which imme- 
diately became a consciousness, that I was unsaved, 
that my soul was in danger! Her tender words had 
" opened my eyes"— my ecclesiastical salvation van- 
ished as in a moment, and I saw myself, in the sight 
of God, a sinner, guilty and polluted, 

" Faded my virtuous show, 

My form without the power, 
The sin-convincing Spirit blew, 

And blasted every flower." 

What a revelation that hour brought to me ! I had 
nothing to say : I hung my head and was silent. 

She saw how God was helping her, and touched 
my arm again. How glad I am that she touched me ! 
The Lord Jesus touched those he would bless. " Such 
words and touches live" — there was sympathy and 



40 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

personal appeal in it, no formality or aristocratic 
bearing. How kindly and tenderly she touched me, 
as she said, " IS"ow listen to me ! " She talked, per- 
haps, less than fifteen minutes, of repentance, what 
it was to be born again, to have the witness of the 
Spirit and real Christianity in the soul. When she 
ceased I had learned more about true religion than I 
had gained from all the sermons I had ever heard, 
for I had been taught — what I least of all expected to 
know — that I was, indeed, a sinner, needing a change 
of heart, and must be converted or perish ; but I 
learned, too, thank God, how I might be saved ! The 
Holy Spirit sealed every word upon my conscience, 
and I became so submissive to the guidance of God 
through her, that it seemed as though a thread would 
have led me anywhere to seek salvation. She closed 
the interview, earnestly exhorting me not to lose an 
hour in carrying out my resolution to seek the Lord, 
and made me promise to call upon her that evening, 
and then used these words : " Young man, God is not 
only able and willing to save your soul, but he is also 
willing to make you the means of the salvation of 
other people." These words startled me. Realizing, 
as I then did, tlie depth of my own unworthiness, I 
could not imagine that God would add personal use- 
fulness in my case to personal salvation. Perhaps it 
ministers to her joy to-day to know that her expecta- 
tion was not disappointed. 

We parted, but I was so determined to lose no time 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 41 

in seeking the Lord, that I let the worldly business 
go for that morning, and walked on to where I knew 
there was a gate leading into the field, and thei^e I 
entered, and behind that wall dropped on my knees, 
and pleaded with God for mercy. The blessed Spirit 
was helping me, and I found words to express myself. 
Then and there I gave myself to Christ as Saviour 
and Lord forever, and implored God to make me 
such a Christian as this lady had taught me I must 
become in order to be saved. That evening I called 
upon her, and she further instructed and prayed 
with me. She also put into my hands the same 
precious books that had helped herself — Carvosso's 
Life and Mrs. Rogers's Life — telling me to read 
them daily, along with my Bible, and keep on pray- 
ing earnestly until I felt that the Lord had converted 
my soul. 

But I had a hard conflict, and a long time elapsed 
ere I entered into the light and joy of salvation. My 
dear friend was my only helper. No Methodistic or 
other evangelical ministry was within my reach, nor 
any of our precious means of grace. I was "in a dry 
and thirsty land." The wicked scoffed at me, and 
some, from whom better things might have been ex- 
pected, pointed the finger of scorn at "this new 
Methodist." But I held on, though without any 
comfort or joy, resolved no,t to give up seeking, let 
them persecute as they might. My convictions of sin 
were very keen. Often I could neither eat nor drink. 



42 Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

nor even sleep. Sometimes I was so distressed that 
I would rise at midnight and walk the fields, and look 
up at the stars, and cry out to God above them to 
come down to my help and grant me mercy. Satan 
was doing all he could to buffet and discourage me, 
so that frequently I ahnost despaired of salvation. In 
this weak and agonized condition a new difficulty was 
added to my burden. I visited a person connected 
with the "Plymouth Brethren" — -an Antinomian and 
Calvinistic community— who urged me to give up 
this worry and anxiety about my soul, on the ground 
that, " if you are elected to be saved, God will in his 
own good tim6 gather you in ; being complete in 
Christ, why distress yourself thus ? " Had I yielded 
to this seductive teaching, I should have lost my 
convictions and cried "peace" when God had not 
spoken it, and so, perhaps, added one more to the 
list of those "goodly formal saints" whom I there 
heard talk so smoothly of "the finished work of 
Jesus" and "imputed righteousness," but whose 
censorious spirit toward those "who followed not 
with them," evidenced plainly enough, even to one 
as feeble as m^^self, how easily a man could become 
a Christian in their sense, and yet remain destitute 
of "the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ." I 
had light enough to see the danger, and cried to God 
to save me from this self-deception, and not allow 
me to rest in any thing but the atonement of Jesus 
Christ, and the divine evidence of it in my liearf. I 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 43 

returned home, but realized soon that I had been 
wounded — an envenomed arrow had pierced me, and 
it was rankling keenlj. That terrible doctrine of an 
unconditional election and its counterpart, had been 
insinuated into my soul. I thought and reasoned 
over those words, " If I was elected to be saved," and 
shuddered as I reflected on the other side of that doc- 
trine. I searched for reasons to enable me to believe 
that I was one of the elect, and, therefore, mj safety- 
was assured, but could not find them ; while, my very 
anguish of soul and the length of time that I had now 
struggled to find peace with God, seemed to prove 
that I was, instead, one of the non-elect, and would 
as surely be lost at last ! Had I gone and disclosed 
this new sorrow to my beloved friend, she might 
have helped me out of it, but I began to fear that 
I was giving her too much trouble, and that my 
delay in finding mercy was becoming discouraging 
to her. What long and weary months of dis- 
traction and mental pain I passed through ere relief 
came ! 

Winter arrived, and my friend returned to the city 
of Dublin, and I was left alone to wrestle with all 
these difficulties. But after a while I followed her 
to the city, and on the ensuing Sabbath morning I 
accompanied her to the Methodist chapel, the first 
non-conformist service I had ever attended. How 
simple and apostolic it all appeared! The hearty 
singing, the extempore prayers, the cxpcriy-nc^i'^nl 



44 Fbom Boston to Bareilly. 

preaching (preached, not read), all delighted me. 
Mj confidence was won. I felt that I had found 
here the very help mj poor discouraged soul required, 
and it was easy to conclude at once, as I did, that 
these people should be my people for the rest of 
my life. 

Here I first saw that dear old harper. I happened 
to sit where I had a good view of him. It was then 
the custom in Methodist services to "line the hymns," 
that is, the preacher gave out two lines, and when the 
congregation had sung them the next two were given. 
Every one sang, including the harper. His quick ear 
could catch the words his eyes had never seen, and it 
was inspiring to behold his glowing and beautiful 
countenance as he sang so joyously. On this occasion 
it happened that the hymn was the first in the collec- 
tion, " O for a thousand tongues, to sing," etc. The 
outburst of holy praise rose in ardor as the hymn 
proceeded ; but when we came to the last verse, 

" Hear him, ye deaf ; his praise, ye dumb, 
Your loosened tongues employ ; " 

I turned to see the effect of the next two lines on this 
man, who, of all in that adoring assembly, could best 
appreciate them. The preacher gave out the words, 

" Ye hlmd^ behold your Saviour come ; 
And leap, ye lame, for joy." 

The old harper was thrilled ; the effect on his feel- 
ings was almost overwhelmino^. His face shone, 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 45 

the tears rolled down liis clieeks, and the siglitless 
eyeballs were lifted up in adoration of the Saviour he 
seemed then and there to "behold." 

l^umbers of the congregation were looking at him, 
and their tears were flowing in sympathy with his 
ecstasy of joy. We all seemed to realize that, blind 
as he was, he was beholding more than any of us 
were favored to see. O, thank God ! there are reve- 
lations in spiritual religion which the world knows 
not, and of which mere formal Christians are not 
aware, when 

" Faith lends its realizing light; 

The clouds disperse, the shadows fly; 
The Invisible appears in sight, 

And God is seen by mortal eye." 

That radiant face was realizing its full significance, 
as he sang and " saw God," and exhibited the effects 
of that adoring humility in which self sinks out of 
sight, and the Lord Jesus becomes "all in all" to 
the enraptured saint. Here, truly, was explained 
and illustrated the full significance of Charles Wes- 
ley's words : 

*' Open my faith's interior eye: 

Display thy glory from above ; 
And all I am shall sink and die, 

Lost in astonishment and love." 

The memory of that blessed Sabbath remains with 
me to this hour. I joined a class, and entered at 
once with avidity into the enjoyment of the means 
of grace possessed by those people. I was no longer 



46 Ekom BostSn to Bareilly. 

alone, without sjmpatliy or assistance, but was helped, 
especially by hearing the experience of others. 

One Sunday afternoon, while in a meeting for 
Christian fellowship, held in the vestry of Hendrick 
Street chapel, I was enabled to rest on Christ as my per- 
sonal Redeemer. All the burden rolled off my heart, 
and I felt and knew that I was saved ! I rose to 
my feet and at once acknowledged what the Lord 
had done for my soul, and those present rejoiced 
with me. 

My precious friend was made happy, and praised 
God on my behalf. She now urged upon me the duty 
of mental culture, and advised the keeping a journal 
of my experience and humble efforts to do good. 
But, above all, she counseled the devout and regular 
perusal of the word of God, with special reference to 
the attainment of that further state of grace to which, 
as a child of God, I had now become entitled. I was 
consequently led to join one of those little bands 
which met to pray for this blessing of purity of heart, 
that "perfect love which casteth out fear." To be 
sanctified throughout body, soul, and spirit, now be- 
came my intense desire. I longed to be saved " to 
the uttermost," and to know for myself what it was 
to " walk in the light, as He is in the light," and expe- 
rience that " the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleans- 
eth from all sin." I did not trouble myself about defi- 
nitions of the doctrine, the experience of which I was 
seeking, no more than I did a few weeks before, when 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 47 

God granted me the blessing of justification. I simply 
accepted the words above quoted in their manifest 
meaning, and entreated the Holy Spirit to grant me, 
in his own way and manner, what they implied. Mr. 
Wesley's sermon on " The Repentance of Believers," 
and his "Plain Account of Christian Perfection," and 
also Mr. Fletcher's treatise, greatly helped me ; so that 
I had an intelligent apprehension of what I required, 
and what the word of God offered to my hope. With 
all sincerity and strong desire I sought it daily, I 
might say, hourly. At one of our little meetings a 
peculiar spirit of earnestness for the blessing sought 
became manifest. We were kneeling round the 
center table in the parlor, and one after the other 
prayed, and some one suggested that we should sing, 
as we knelt, and with all the faith we had, these two 
verses : 

" that it now from heaven might fall, 

And all my sins consume I 
Come, Holy Grhost, for thee I call; 

Spirit of burning, come ! 

" Refining fire, go through my heart ; 

Illuminate my soul ; 
Scatter thy life tlirough every part, 

And sanctify the whole." 

As the singing closed all became conscious of the 
surrounding presence of the holy Sanctifier, whom 
we had invoked. I can describe my own feelings 
very imperfectly, for this was something beyond what 
I had ever known before. It seemed to be light and 



48 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

life and love combined, so sweetly, and in such an 
indescribable manner, resulting in 

" The speechless awe that dares not move 
And all the silent heaven of love." 

Christ had become, beyond all former experience, 
every thing to me, while I seemed to sink at his 
blessed feet, " lost in astonishment and love." Those, 
in any denomination, who have sought and found this 
grace, will understand what I am trying to narrate 
better than I am able to describe it. 

The effect upon me was clear. I had henceforth 
more delight in devotion, closer intimacy wdtli God, 
greater stability of heart and character, and more 
deadness to the world. I was conscious of an increase 
of calmly fervent zeal to lay out my life to do any 
thing that my blessed Master might require of me. 
Perfect peace — "the peace of God that passeth all 
understanding " — kept my heart and mind from day to 
day. I was free from excitement, from fluctuation, 
and from all fear, resting sweetly in the calm sunshine 
of the E'ew Testament salvation, and living " a life 
of faith in the Son of God," who, I knew, loved me 
and had given himself for me. 

" 0, days of heaven, 

And nights of equal praise 1 " 

Sometime after this the Eev. Dr. Durbin, president 
of Dickinson College in America, then on a tour in 
Europe, came to Dublin, and was announced to preach 



FuoM Boston to Bareilly. 49 

in Abbey Street cliapel. I went to hear him. The 
audience was very large and deeply interested. His 
sermon was to me a memorable one. The text was, "A 
bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax 
shall he not quench." Those were the days of candles 
in the pulpit, and, in illustration of liis theme of the 
divine tenderness toward every penitent soul, he lifted 
the snuffers and took off the superfluous wick, then, 
after a moment's pause, he opened the snuffers, and a 
tiny puff of smoke rose up out of the holder, and he 
stretched it out toward the audience, and proceeded 
to show that a feeling in the human soul as 
weak even as that " smoking flax " need not be dis- 
couraged, for God would " not quench it." He car- 
ried out and illustrated the doctrine of the divine 
mercy to mankind, and showed that willful refusal of 
his grace, and that alone, could cause the final rejec- 
tion of any human soul. In the light of this sermon 
that ghastly creed of an arbitrary reprobation of men 
as men — that ^'horrible decree," which had hung 
over my mind like a cloud — vanished aw^ay forever. 
How gloriously this Arminian theology sounded in 
my ears, and corresponded with all the joyous ex- 
perience of my heart ! I blessed God for the conso- 
lation, and felt that his service had become to me 
one of the highest inspirations of my life. 

What glorious perfections of the divine nature om- 
niscience and foreknowledge must be ! There, in that 

evening service, where His gracious presence was so 
4 



50 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

manifest, the future lay before tlie eye of God in one 
unlimited outlook, so that he could " call those things 
which are not as though thej were." He saw the 
preacher become missionary secretary, and the un- 
known listener a founder of missions, both brought 
together in co-operation, and the India and Mexico 
missions the result. 

So far as I was concerned a new and special interest 
for the great country which Dr. Durbin represented, 
sprang up in my mind. But how far I was from 
imagining that evening, as I sat and listened to him 
with such delight, in what interesting relations he 
and I were yet to stand to each other. How, from 
the very hand which held forth that humble illustra- 
tion, I was to receive, in another pulpit, and beyond 
the Atlantic, that letter of instructions — that com- 
mission and an American passport — under which I 
became the chosen representative of his Church, and 
the founder of that work in India on which his heart 
was so long set, and to which some of his grandest 
eloquence became so consecrated to the close of his 
public life ! 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 51 



CHAPTER II. 

" Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace 
given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable 
riches of Christ," — St. Paul. 

The celebration of the centenary of Wesleyan Meth- 
odism awakened in my heart deep gratitude to the 
Author of all good for every thing which that event 
implied. I was led to cross over to Liverpool to 
be present on the occasion when the Kev. Thomas 
Jackson, the president of the British Conference, 
preached the official centennial sermon required by 
the Conference of 1839. The text was from 1 Cor. 
i, 26, " For ye see your calling, brethren," etc. It 
was to me an occasion of great spiritual profit, and 
gave me an enlarged appreciation of the work of God 
being accomplished throughout the world through 
the instrumentality of the Church with which I had 
become connected. But God had led me to Liverpool 
for higher purposes than mere religious enjoyment 
and contemplation. A new and peculiar class of 
thoughts and feelings were beginning to assert them- 
selves over my heart and the purposes of my life. 
But 1 knew not their significance, and dreamed not 
where and how far they were going to lead me. 
I had been brought into pleasant acquaintance with 



52 Fkom BosToiT TO Baeeilly. 

a godly man, a local preacher, and, without my know- 
ing it, he was closely watching the manifestations of 
my experience. When the Sabbath morning arrived 
it was his turn to preach in the open air at St. John's 
Market. I gladly accompanied him to aid in singing, 
as well as to see, what I had not witnessed before, an 
open-air service. I greatly enjoyed the opportunity. 
But what was my amazement to hear him, as he closed 
the service, announce to the crowd, '' Friends, I want 
to give notice that this afternoon, at three o'clock, 
William Butler, of Dublin, will preach here. Come 
and hear him ! " I was so surprised that my speech 
seemed to leave me, and it. was some time before I 
could say any thing. When I recovered myself the 
crowd had departed, and he and I were almost alone. 
I asked the good man why he had made the announce- 
ment. I expostulated, pointed out that I had but late- 
ly experienced religion, had no training, was only a 
youth, never had preached, and never expected to do 
so. The easy way in which he bore all my expostula- 
tion amazed me still further. He seemed to have no 
sympathy for my distress, but he quietly replied, " My 
brother, you must preach the Gospel, or you will lose 
your religion." In my simplicity, then, I supposed 
whatever a good man said was not to be questioned ; 
nor did it occur to me that he might be mistaken. 
So I felt entirely bewildered. It seemed that I had 
to do this thing or " lose my religion." We walked 
home in silence. It grew awfully solemn the more I 



From Boston to Bareilly. 63 

thought about it. Some three hours before the time 
for the service my friend handed me the Bible and 
hymn book, and told me to retire to my bedroom and 
ask God to give me a text, and then study it, and that 
he would call me v^dien it was time to go. 

Entering the room, I threw myself on my knees 
and tried to pray, but my great anxiety seemed to 
frighten away every text from my remembrance. I 
could not fasten on any. The distress increased as 
the hour drew on. At length the words, " Ye must 
be born again," seemed to shine out of the darkness, 
and I thought, " Well, I know what that is, and can 
tell them something about it, and then spend the rest 
of the time persuading them to seek it." I had caught 
hold of my two simple divisions. Just then my friend 
knocked ; it was time to go. How solemn that walk 
was ! " The burden of the Lord " had been laid on 
my shoulders, and it was very heavy. But, sooner 
than '^ lose my religion," I would bear it ; and then, I 
reflected, it would only be for that once. The con- 
gregation were already assembled around the steps, 
and I went up, knowing I could at least give oat the 
hymn and offer prayer, and then read a chapter. 
Whether I could go any further time alone could tell. 
The second singing was ending, and the next thing 
the people would expect to hear would be the text. 
My poor heart beat fast and I cried to God for help. 
At length the text was uttered, "Ye must be born 
again." I saw there was only one way for me. If I 



54 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

looked into the faces of the congregation I should, in 
my timidity, surely become confused, and have to sit 
down in silence ; so I immediately closed my eyes, 
and dared not open them again until my poor little 
sermon was ended. In a few minutes, as I was telling 
them what God had done for me when I was " born 
again," a person on the right hand said, " Amen ! " 
How that helped me ! I felt that some one was being 
benefited. Well, I concluded at last, and then vent- 
ured to open my eyes. ' I prayed, and the audience 
was dismissed. The dreadful ordeal was over ! 

On our way home I timidly said to my friend, " I 
have done what you laid on me, but, of course, that 
is the end of the matter. I shall never make another 
effort of the kind." He quietly smiled and said 
nothing. How I did wish he would say that he 
would not expect it of me ! But he kept his thoughts 
to himself. I returned to my home in Dublin before 
the following Sabbath. The news that I " had been 
preaching in the streets of Liverpool " had reached 
there before me, and the congratulations began to 
pour in. But to call such a poor performance, deliv- 
ered, too, " in weakness, and in fear, and in much 
trembling " — to call that " preaching," and even con- 
gratulate me upon it ! However, this was the " send- 
ing forth " that I received, and, " having obtained help 
of God, I have continued unto this day " to minister 
the word of life as God enabled me. Yes, and even 
upon that weakest of all efforts, a gracious God was 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 55 

pleased to set his own seal. I was to meet the blessed 
result forty-four years afterward in America, when 
going to attend my Conference in Boston on the 5th 
of April, 1883, to ask the sanction of my ministerial 
brethren for my absence on this journey, the very oc- 
casion when the resolution upon the seventh page was 
so generously passed ! The excitement there men- 
tioned was caused partly by my reference to this first 
sermon of mine in Liverpool, and the remarkable fact 
that on the evening before, when returning from Bos- 
ton to Melrose, a member of my charge informed me 
that there was a person at their house who had just 
arrived from New York, and w^ho had told them that 
he traveled up in company with a gentleman from 
Canada, who, being a Methodist, had inquired as to 
Methodist matters at Melrose, and, on the pastor's 
name having been mentioned, the gentleman in ques- 
tion started, and inquired eagerly as to the Christian 
name and nationality, and when assured that it was 
" William Butler, formerly of Dublin," he remarked, 
with deep feeling, " Forty-four years ago I heard that 
man preach in St. John's Market, in Liverpool, and 
under that sermon I was led to Christ !" How truly 
was President Jackson's text illustrated in this case 
also : " God hath chosen the weak things of the world 
to confound the things which are mighty. . . . That 
no flesh should glory in his presence." 

But there was another purpose to be realized by 
that visit to Liverpool. While there I made the ac- 



56 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

qnaimtaiice of tlie Rev. Mr. Trippett, a superannuated 
member of the 'New York Conference, who had come 
for a time to make his home in Liverpool. From 
conversation with him I gained further information 
of that free land beyond the Atlantic, and its grow- 
insT Methodism. I told him how much I desired in- 
formation about both, and he kindly offered to order 
for me such books as I needed, and also to forward 
my subscription for The Christian Advocate. I was 
thus brought into contact and more intimate sympathy 
with the life and action of John Wesley's Church ; 
and this became, in some sort, a training that, under 
Providence, more fully prepared the way for my con- 
nection with that Church, ten years afterward, when 
I had gained that more special aptitude which was 
requisite to prepare me to fill the peculiar position 
which the necessity of the hour would require. I was 
at this time inexperienced and young, and had no 
qualification for preaching the Gospel except piety 
and zeal for souls. But that sermon at Liverpool 
settled the whole question. My friends would take 
no denial. I nmst go here and there and preach (or 
" talk," if I preferred to call it so), and thus out of 
one effort and revival into another I was carried for- 
ward, trying to win souls for the Master. 

After two years of various service in different 
.circuits, I w^as sent to Didsbury College, near Man- 
chester, to take a theological course, under the devout 
and venerable Dr. Hannah. During one of my vaca- 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 67 

tions, learning that my beloved friend was nearing 
eternity, I crossed over to Ireland to see her once 
more. She was an enthusiastic admirer of the beau- 
ties of nature, seeing in them the handiwork of her 
heavenly Father ; so, as long as she could bear the 
effort, she was carried out daily and laid on a bed 
arranged in a little carriage, and a gentle pony, care- 
fully led, took the dear invalid wherever she wished 
to go. In this condition I found her near her home 
one summer day, her good husband guiding the little 
carriage. There she lay, her head on the pillow, 
looking around and enjoying the lovely landscape, 
which she knew she was ere long to exchange for the 
more glorious scenes of the Paradise of God. I 
came to the side of the carriage and looked in upon 
her who had led me to Jesus. She smiled, and the 
tears came down the sweet face as she saw me. She 
stretched out her hand, now so thin and wasted, and 
laid it on my head, and, looking up, said, " Thank 
God, here is one that is faithful ! " She had tried to 
be useful to ma^ny others, as well as to uie, but some 
" in times of temptation had fallen away," and it grieved 
her. My steadfastness, however, and my prospect of 
entering the holy ministry were a great joy to her. 
It was evident now that I should not see her on earth 
again, as I had to return to England to resume my 
studies. So, with tears, I bade her farewell, not 
doubting that she would close her holy and useful life 
triumphantly. She lingered until the morning of 



58 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

March 29, 1843, and tlien met death as such a Chris- 
tian miglit be expected to meet it. She had her 
bed wheeled to the window, which commanded a 
grand view of the scenery she so much admired. 
Ah^eady she had sent her final messages of Christian 
love to her friends and those she had so religiously 
helped, and was only waiting now for leave to depart 
and be with Christ forever. The morning sun was 
tilling the view before her with loveliness, and the 
nurse drew her attention to its great beauty, when 

" Faith" lent " its realizing light," 

and she exclaimed, " O nurse ! soon a brighter sun 
will shine upon me on the everlasting hills ! " She 
paused, and then her radiant face, looking all the Joy 
that she expressed, she quoted the lines : 

" The world recedes — it disappears ; 
Heaven opens on my eyes ; my ears 
With sounds seraphic ring ! " 

Her ecstasy of joy increased ; she made an effort 
to rise, and eagerly stretched out her hands, as if to 
welcome the help that had come to aid her, exultingly 
exclaiming : 

" Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly 1 
* Grave, where is thy victory ? 
Death, where is thy sting ? ' " 

With the last word the head gently settled down, and 
she was gone ! Gone to be " forever with the Lord." 
Gone, too, where she will be henceforth surrounded 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 69 

by the fruits of her loving and gentle ministry here 
below, showing what one woman, and she even a 
weak sufferer, may do for the souls around her, when 
her whole heart is given in loving' sympathy to the 
blessed work. Nor was she un welcomed to ''the 
everlasting habitations." There were those who 
waited with joy to greet her on her arrival. There 
slie found her dear old harper — no longer old and 
blind — for his eyes were wide open now to all the 
glory he had so longed to see, and in his hands was 
one of " the harps of God " (Rev. xiv, 2 ; xv, 2), 

" Strung and tuned for endless years, 
And formed by power divine." 

And there, too, was Neill, her coachman (like his be- 
loved mistress, for years a sufferer), with many others, 
also, who welcomed her to " the excellent glory," 
while here below there remain a few more of us who 
hope to overtake her soon. It may be also that she 
has there met, and recognized already, such as " Sam- 
uel " and " Prem Das," and " Rodrigues " and " Epig- 
mio Monroy," and others of the redeemed converts 
which have already " gone up " to the same glorious 
home from the " valley of the Ganges " and the 
" land of Montezuma," " the first-fruits " of a glori- 
ous harvest from both climes. Doubtless it augments 
her joy to know that she had something to do with 
the founding of both those missions ! By her special 
desire her mortal remains were laid to rest in a simple 
tomb, similar in form, and side by side, with tlie iorrA) 



60 Fkom Bosto:n^ to Babeilly. 

of the Hev. Gideon Oiiselej, lier religious friend, in 
the Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin. Her honored 
dust there reposes in sure and certain hope to " awake 
to everlasting life." On the front of the tomb are 
the words " Sacred to the memory of Sydney Mary 
Crampton." In the same cemetery, and as near to 
her resting-place as I could arrange it, lies the body 
of another beloved woman, my first wife, whose early 
death, and the circumstances following it, led me to 
decide to emigrate to the United States. It was her 
dying wish that she should be buried in the same 
cemetery with Mrs. Crampton, and that affectionate 
desire was gratified. 

When God saved my soul he imbued me with the 
missionary spirit. My sympathy for unsaved men 
every-w^here, who are "perishing for lack of knowl- 
edge," was called forth, and I longed that they, too, 
should come to know my mighty Saviour. The resi- 
dence in England gave me a special opportunity for 
the cultivation of this missionary spirit. I had the 
privilege of meeting some of the most honored and 
useful missionaries of their time : men like Barnabas 
Shaw, Peter Jones, and others, whose character and 
labors filled me with admiration. There, too, I list- 
ened frequently to the first missionary speakers of 
their day : Robert I^ewton, Theophilus Lessey, Jabez 
Bunting, and many more. It was impossible to hear 
such men and not imbibe their Christlike spirit. I 
read missionary literature extensively, and especially 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 61 

tlie montniy " Missionary ITotices " of tlie Wesleyan 
Society. The record of tlie spread of my Saviour's 
kingdom over the earth became to me the grandest of 
all literature. ]^or was my reading limited to Meth- 
odist missions. I read the publications of the other 
societies as well, and rejoiced in the progress of them 
all. A missionary library began to accumulate, and 
my interest rose with my intelligence on the subject. 
In the meantime I had been brous^ht into intimate 
relations with Rev. James Lynch, who, on the death 
of Dr. Coke, had become superintendent of the Wes- 
leyan missions in the East. He had now returned 
home, and was in the last year of his ministerial serv- 
ice, and, being feeble, I was sent to assist him. 
From this venerable man I heard much that was cal- 
culated to enlarge my views and deepen my interest 
in missionary work, especially in India. The theme 
thus became familiar to my thoughts and sympathies, 
yet, beyond making a missionary speech occasionally, 
I did not dream what particular use the Lord was 
intending to make of the deep and increasing interest 
he was so providentially creating in my mind on this 
subject. But he intended that that should be mani- 
fest when his own time had come. 

In 1844 I joined the Irish Conference, was or- 
dained in 1848, and labored altogether six years 
in that connection. Still a regular reader of The 
Christian Advocate^ and enlarging my acquaintance 
with American Methodism by reading its books, my 



62 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

thoughts and wishes were constantly turning to the 
great West, so that, early in 1850, on the occurrence 
of events which left me free to decide, I resolved to 
transfer myself to the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
though not definitely understanding why I had this 
decided preference, only realizing that I was being 
" guided aright," and that God would hereafter make 
it plain to me. I reached America in time for the 
meeting of the New York Conference, held that year 
at E'ew Haven, and was kindly welcomed by Bishops 
Janes and Hedding. On examination of my papers 
I was received into membership with the Conference, 
but two days after, on the representation of the Rev\ 
Charles Baker as to the want of men in his district, 
I was transferred to the New England Conference, 
and stationed at Williamsburg, Mass. I now became 
more fully impressed, in view of her growing power, 
with the responsibility of the American Methodist 
Church, before God and Christendom, to do her full 
and proper part of that missionary service for which 
the world was waiting, and began to talk and use 
my pen in hope of somewhat stimulating her zeal. 
Without realizing it, I was drawing attention to my- 
self, and invitations began to come to me, requesting 
me to go here and there, to congregations and Con- 
ferences, and talk upon the subject that lay so near 
my heart. 

In 1852 I published a " Compendium of Missions," 
several thousand copies of which went into circula- 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 63 

tion, and drew some attention to the great duty 
which we owed to the world. I was also selected 
that year to preach the missionary sermon before the 
" Biblical Institute," at Concord, N. H., which I did 
from the text, " Thy kingdom come." The institute 
published the sermon. In all my efforts I assumed 
that Methodism was essentially, and from the com- 
mencement, missionary in her spirit and aims ; that 
it became her to realize and act 4tpon this con- 
viction as God increased her ability; and that, in 
proportion as she did so, the Lord would use and 
honor her in extending the kingdom of his Son 
upon the earth. By this time I was brought into 
contact with Dr. Durbin, and was called upon to 
render some service at our missionary anniversaries. 
When Harvey J^ewcomb commenced his preparations 
for the publication of " The CycloiDsedia of Missions," 
he applied to Dr. Durbin to name a clergyman of our 
denomination who would prepare the articles on the 
missions of British and American Methodism ; the 
doctor did me the honor to name me for the duty, 
so that I soon found myself occupying a position of 
special usefulness by the kind appreciation of my 
brethren, and with work enough to do for the blessed 
cause so dear to me. 

Meanwhile the tide of missionary interest was 
rising in our Church. This was aided by the 
visit, about this time, of Dr. Duff, from Calcutta, 
and his earnest pleadings for the American Churches 



64 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

to extend tlieir help in the East. Dr. Durbin was 
leading our own Church on to a higher sense of lier 
duty to Christ and to the world, and there was glowing 
before his mind the idea of a mission of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church to India. His grandest outbursts 
of feeling and eloquence before our Annual Confer- 
ences and the churches were, from this time forward, 
on this topic. The Board took action for the estab- 
lishment of suQJ^ a mission, and the General Missionary 
Committee, in l^ovember, 1853, made an appropriation 
of $7,000 for its conmiencement, while the doctor 
was instructed to seek a suitable man to go forth as 
its founder and first superintendent. A volunteer 
was desired, and an advertisement to this eifect was 
inserted in The Christian Advocate and The Mission- 
ary Advocate^ in which such a person was invited to 
offer himself for this service. But the missionary 
year closed without any one, deemed suitable, coming 
forward. Dr. Durbin became very anxious, and so 
was the Board. In ^N^ovember, 1864, the appropriation 
was renewed, and the search for the man continued. 
I watched the result wdth deep solicitude. In review 
of the facts, and having had of late years — since my 
return — conversations with some who then felt more or" 
less disposed to offer themselves for the service, I am 
not so much surprised as I was at the time with the 
singular hesitation of our ministers to come forward 
for this duty. India then seemed very far away, and 
had but little commercial relations with this country ; 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 65 

most of what was done was by the Tudor Company 
of Boston, which cut the Wenham Lake ice, and sent 
it round the Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta, bring- 
ing back India products. The intercourse with the 
East was hmited. Japan was then a sealed country, 
and our mission in China very feebly developed. So 
there was but little enthusiasm on the surface of 
Oriental affairs to encourage our men to go there. It 
need not be wondered at that our ministers were 
slow in looking beyond all these discouragements to 
the duty of carrying the Gospel to the perishing, 
who seemed so far away. Then, in a few cases when 
this was surmounted, and men felt disposed to go, 
domestic considerations had to be weighed. The 
wife was found unwilling to venture, or without the 
health that such a duty would require ; or, where 
health and willingness existed, it was hard to give up 
the little ones, or it was found that they could not be 
provided for. So one after another failed, and 1854 
closed with nothing yet accomplished. 

In the spring of the preceding year I had been 
stationed at Westfield, and there my precious wife 
died, and I was left with three little ones, the 
youngest only four months old. Hitherto, though 
my heart was yearning for the commencement of 
that mission in India, I had not thought seriously of 
offering myself to go. I reflected that I was only a 
stranger in the land, and naturally felt that some 
native American minister, and one better known,- 



66 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

would attract more confidence, as well as bring to the 
inception of the work an interest that I could not 
hope to develop. Then, again, my wife's delicacy 
of health had convinced me the burden was one that 
she could not sustain for a single year. So it seemed 
all that I could do in the case was to pray and hope 
that some suitable man, with full freedom for the 
burden to be borne, would offer himself soon. Dr. 
Durbin and the Missionary Board could not under- 
stand the reasons of this delay, and became impatient 
over it. Some eminent person wrote to the doctor at 
this time on the subject of his great solicitude, re- 
marking, " If we have a work to do in that country, 
we shall find God's chosen instruments to execute it." 
On this the doctor, whose soul was exercised so long 
by the " hope deferred," laconically remarked, " We 
confess to a longing for their appearing." But when 
the month of May, 1855, arrived, and the suitable 
instrument had not appeared, he could endure it no 
longer. He took up his pen and wrote an article 
which must liave cost him some of the deepest feel- 
ing of his life. It appeared in The Christian Advo- 
cate of the 10th of May, and was headed, " The 
Crisis." I will quote the first part of it. He 
says : " We are no alarmist, and do not now mean 
to sound an alarm-note. But after consultation, 
particularly with Bishop Simpson, who has charge of 
our intended missions in India and Turkey, we feel 
free to say, that this is the third year the General 



From Boston to Bareilly. 67 

Missionary Committee has provided the money for 
the commencement of a mission in India, and yet the 
Bishops have not been able to obtain a minister of 
suitable age, health, and habits, as founder and super- 
intendent of the mission. In general terms, the 
superintendent should be from twenty-live to thirty- 
five years of age, and of at least seven years in the min- 
istry ; of good health, not constitutionally inclined to 
disease of the liver; married, and not with more 
than one child or two, better without children ; health 
of the wife good, and free from constitutional tenden- 
cies to disease. Such a minister and his wife, with 
their minds made np to give their lives to a mission 
in India, would be a great boon to the Church at this 
time. We think we could find two other younger 
brethren, of similar conditions and habits as members 
of the mission. These three mission families would 
lay the foundations of the mission of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in India, and we do not doubt but 
that the Church would afford the mission the means 
of prosecuting its great work on a scale that would 
secure the attention and confidence of the Church, and 
redound to the glory of God. 

" We are of opinion that the brethren competent 
to found and execute the mission are in the ministry 
among us, if we could be brought into connection 
with them. Yery many letters have been written by 
the Bishops and Corresponding Secretary, but as yet 
without success." 



68 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

Dr. Durbin tlien proceeded to urge upon the pre- 
siding elders and otliers to look round them and try 
earnestly to find the man so much desired, and get 
him into communication with Bishop Simpson or the 
Secretary, that the mission might be commenced 
without further delay. 

I thought, surely this definite and pathetic plea 
would bring the proper person to the front, and 
especially when so many were looking for him. So 
I waited to see the result, confident it must be close 
at hand now. Every issue of the Advocate was 
watched, but week after week went over and no item 
appeared. The case now began to look very serious. 
Indeed, it became almost awful to realize that, from 
the ranks of the thousands of our ministry, a super- 
intendent for this mission could not be found. 
Must the project, then, be abandoned by our great 
Church, while God was opening the door of access 
to those perishing millions, and the money was ready 
and waiting, and all for the want of a suitable 
man ? If so, could we expect to retain the favor of 
God while we thus left the souls for whom Christ 
died to perish without hearing of him and his grace, 
so free and abundant for them ? Thousands of our 
spiritually minded people were asking such questions 
as these, and they were urged for consideration at our 
missionary services and Annual Conferences. In 
these better days, when God's servants offer them- 
selves so willingly for our various fields of missionary 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 69 

service, it does seem strange that such an emergency 
could ever have arisen in our missionary history. 
But the results show that the only thing really needed 
was a leader, some one to go before and prepare the 
way. Yet, under the circumstances which developed, 
it seems evident that it required and received God's 
more special providence to provide this leader for 
this mission, and also to have him ready just at this 
emergency. But this much having been done, men 
in sufficient numbers began to come forward, and the 
founder of the mission after two or three years be- 
came well sustained with fellow-laborers in the field 
chosen. I am the more particular to trace out these 
facts, not to call attention to myself or my share in 
the work (for what am I in the matter but a humble 
instrument of the Divine purpose ?) I do it in the 
hope that, having thus traced them, and furnished the 
record, as no one else can, I may leave a permanent 
impression upon the heart of my beloved Church in 
regard to the definite and providential preparation for 
that great work to which she was thus called in India. 
My heart's desire and prayer is, that she may be led 
more fully to appreciate her opportunity, and be 
faithful and strong to do her full duty, as God must 
certainly expect she will, after all that he has himself 
thus done to open her way for its accomplishment. 

At the close of 1854 I had again married, and on re- 
turning to my home, in Lynn, I found a letter awaiting 
me from Dr. Durbin, which was, indeed, a surprise. 



70 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

'Not knowing that I was about to marry, and suppos- 
ing that he could somehow find homes for my mother- 
less children, he wrote to ask me (not, whether I 
would go to India, — had he put that question to me 
at any time during the year preceding it would have 
been promptly answered in the affirmative, but) 
whether I would be willing to go to Africa, to super- 
intend the mission in Liberia ? I was amazed. My 
interest and anxiety were with the project for India, 
and all the preceding facts seemed to point there and 
not to Africa. But the question had come, and I 
had to answer it. I felt at once that, with my full- 
blooded habit, I should probably have but small chance 
of life and service in Africa. It seemed to me a mis- 
take to send me there. Yet, I am grateful I did 
not answer " No," that I told Dr. Durbin if it was 
considered, after medical examination, that I had a 
fair chance of life, and, therefore, of labor, in Africa, 
I would go. But an immediate reply from him 
came back, explaining that he supposed I was still 
single and could go alone. And this not being so, 
he did not wish to have me go, and withdrawing his 
letter. So I was reserved for the more important 
duty that was yet to be presented, but had to wait 
till God had made the requisite preparations, on the 
other side of the world, for our coming. This ac- 
complished. He knew, doubtless, that every thing 
requisite on this side could be consummated in a few 
days, and the mission to India would be initiated as he 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 71 

desired. It is said that " God is never in a hurry," 
but when his " set time " is come, and lie has made 
all ready, he is often in haste for the accomplishment 
of his purpose. He requires promptitude from those 
whom he calls into his service. When he says " Go," 
the unburied relatives must be left to other hands, 
and the plow be forsaken in the furrow, by the mes- 
sengers on whom the mantle of duty has fallen, or they 
are not fit for the service of the kingdom of God. 

l^early three months had passed since that appeal 
appeared, on the 10th of May, and Dr. Durbin, be- 
coming discouraged, began to intimate that, if a suit- 
able man did not offer to go to India within a few 
weeks, the Board would not recommend to the General 
Committee another renewal of the appropriation, and 
the project of a mission to India by our Church 
would, consequently, be abandoned ! How much pain 
must that apprehension have cost the doctor! I 
was exceedingly distressed. But my mind was at 
once made up, that the project should not be aban- 
doned, if they thought me suitable for the position. 
Though I would have much preferred, for the reasons 
given a few pages back, that this responsible duty 
had been laid upon the shoulders of some brother 
better known and an American ; yet, failing such a 
one, my simple and decided purpose was, " Here am 
I, send me." That I might however be clear in my 
own mind that the duty was really left to me, I re- 
solved to wait two or three weeks more, and if the 



72 Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 

American brother, whom I preferred for the service, 
did not come forward and respond to the " crisis," I 
would then hesitate no longer. 

Four weeks before the meeting of the Board at 
which this serious action would be taken, I went to 
New York to ascertain quietly whether the way was 
now open for me to offer myself. Dr. Durbin was 
not in the city, but Brother Terry informed me the 
man desired had not come forward, and also how 
deeply exercised Dr. Durbin's heart was in view of 
the failure. I returned home, had an interview with 
my presiding elder. Rev. Dr. Crowell, and then, with 
my wife's full consent, and invoking the divine guid- 
ance, on the 10th of October, I wrote to Dr. Durbin 
and offered myself for India. I was accepted and 
the painful " crisis " was over. How glad I felt ! 
I seemed now to realize why it was I Avas so 
providentially led to America. It Avas evident that 
God had a purpose in my coming, and it was his 
intention I should be on hand to meet a foreseen 
emergency, so that the Methodist Episcopal Church 
should not fail of her duty to Christ and the world. 
In a review of the facts that have been developed, 
it seems very clear to me now that I was divinely con- 
trolled as well as guided in the whole matter, and 
especially in the more emergent circumstances. A 
fact or two may here illustrate the reasons for this 
conviction. 

Trusting that I do not presume in thinking the 



FiiOM Boston to Bareilly. 73 

Lord intended I should become the founder of the 
India mission, it seems plain that, for reasons then 
known only to himself (some of which, however, 
are clear to us now), I was held back until he was 
ready in his providential arrangements for the work 
which had to be done. We can now see that, had I 
acted six months sooner than I did, the field it was 
best for me to choose, and which I did choose, would 
not have been open to us, for the King of Oude 
would have stood right in the w^ay. He was not re- 
moved and his kingdom annexed until a few weeks 
before I reached India, in 1856. The patience of the 
English government with this royal sot and utterly 
debased creature had just been exhausted, and his 
removal decreed. His terrible record is given in " The 
Private Life of an Eastern King," written by an Amer- 
ican gentleman in his employment (republished about 
1854 in this country). Up to that hour Oude was closed 
to Christian missions. Again, Hohilcund without 
Oude, would have been too small for our purposes, and 
I might have been thus led to choose some other field 
not at all so suitable in the qualities which I was in- 
structed to seek as the one we now occupy ; for that 
choice has stood the test of twenty-five years' reflection, 
and is admitted to-day, by general consent, to be unex- 
celled by any other region occupied or unoccupied in 
all India. Again, had I gone six months earlier, it 
seems almost certain that some of my colleagues 
might have reached me ere the terrific storm of 1857 



74 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

burst over Hindustan. As it was I was alone to face 
the danger, and the Church was not discouraged, as 
she might have been, by the loss of her first repre- 
sentatives. God had only to hide me and mine in 
the hollow of his hand till the indignation was over- 
past, and when over, my first colleagues, who were 
waiting on the outside of the danger at Calcutta (two 
brethren and their wives), were able to enter and join 
me, all safe and well. On the other hand, it was 
most wisely arranged that I should not be later in ar- 
riving than the fall of 1856. We were just ten 
weeks settled down in our chosen field when the 
Sepoy Kebellion opened its horrors. God probably 
knew it was best the first representative of the 
Church should pass through that ordeal, and then 
come forth out of the midst of that circle of fire with 
not a hair of his head singed, to find his beloved 
Church rejoicing over his safety, and ready to re- 
spond to the grand extent necessary, with her men 
and her means, to occupy the wide field so providen- 
tially given her to cultivate there for Him. God thus 
timed our coming, and took abundant care of the emer- 
gencies involved, so that all should " turn out for the 
furtherance of the Gospel." 

It was arranged by the missionary authorities that 
I should be ready to sail for India as soon as my Con- 
ference met, in April. Meanwhile, one or two young 
colleagues to accompany me were being sought for 
by the Corresponding Secretary, bnt, to my regret, as 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 75 

well as his own, the effort was without success so far. 
Yet even this hesitation, as we can now see, was 
overruled for good. On reachins^ India a great deal 
of prospecting had to be done, the various unoccupied 
portions compared, and the one most suitable selected. 
So it was best the founder of the mission should go 
alone and be free to meet this heavy responsibility. 
The guidance of God would surely be given, and time 
and experience have shown that it was granted 
according to the necessity of the case. 

While finishing my pastoral term and getting ready 
for our departure to the East, a curious circumstance 
transpired in Lynn, where I was then stationed. The 
Rev. Parsons Cooke, of the Congregational Church, 
issued a work in two volumes (subsequently increased 
to three), in which he undertook to show, as his pages 
stated, that " Methodism is not a true branch of the 
Church of Christ ! " 

This singularly bigoted man — my next-door neigh- 
bor, as it were — originated quite a sensation by his 
sudden and startling charge. But he labored hard to 
prove his uncharitable imputation true, chiefly on the 
ground, as he alleged, that Methodism was manifestly 
destitute of a real missionary spirit, and, therefore, 
wanting in the apostolic characteristic of a true Chris- 
tian Church. Our Arminian tlieology was also a great 
trouble to him. The three volumes of his " Centu- 
ries" were launched from the press with much haste, 
and created amazement. He had before him the An- 



76 Fkom Boston to Baeeillt. 

rrnal Report of our Missionary Society for 1854, and 
liis manipulation of its statements and figures were 
singularly unfair and nncandid. 

The gist of his argument was, that with all our 
boasted progress w^e had no true foreign mission 
worthy the name, and yet were raising missionary 
money nnder that pretense, in order to spend it at 
home, where he considered we were not much re- 
quired, and were rather in the way of other denom- 
inations like his own. His specification was, that of 
the $228,204 income of the year, we spent only $4,883 
on China, $964 on South America, $10,055 on Ger- 
many, and $33,825 on Liberia — only the first-named, 
according to him, being a mission to the heathen ; all 
the rest — nearly four fifths of the whole amount — we 
were spending at home. It seemed greatly to distress 
this man that our American Methodism was spending 
" so much at home, " and gaining such a foothold in 
the land. He had no thanks to render to God for the 
fact that tens of thousands were being yearly converted 
and led to Christ thereby, or that we were gaining 
the strength and development which would soon enable 
us to do our duty to the heathen world. ISTor did he 
make the slightest allowance for the fact that our 
Church, as an organized Christian community, was 
only seventy-one years old when he was writing these 
" bitter things" against her. 

Instead of admitting that her progress in tho?e 
seventy-one years, from nothing up to her standing 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 77 

in 1854, was a marvel of grace and progress such as 
Christendom had never seen before, and for which a 
good man might well be glad and bless God, he, on 
the contrary, seemed vexed and distressed at the de- 
velopment of this youngest member of the evangelical 
family so unjustly taunted by his comparison. He 
overlooked the fact that his own denomination, when 
it was only seventy years old, had not do^e one half as 
much for home or foreign missions as the Methodist 
Church had in the same time. He ignored the unex- 
ampled liberality of this young Church in the resources 
which she had developed to build her houses of wor- 
ship, her parsonages, schools, and colleges, and other 
institutions over this wide land, with all of which ap- 
pliances his own denomination had been supplied for 
nearly two hundred years, and, therefore, his com- 
parisons were wanting in Christian candor, and un- 
fair before God and man. He also ignored the 
fact that our denomination was, even then, standing 
at the head of all the American Churches in efforts 
for the evangelization of the heathen Indians, hav- 
ing more stations, missionaries, church members, and 
scholars than any of them. (See " l^ewcomb's Cyclo- 
paedia of Missions," p. 626.) 

How sad it seems to quote to-day the words of this 
angry man, when he had the temerity to charge us 
with wasting missionary money at home, " in secta- 
rian rivalry that added nothing to the Christian life 
of the land!" 



78 Fbom Boston to Baeeilly. 

It is also monitory to remember now, tliat, despite 
all the talk of the time, of ''Christian Union" and 
" Evangelical Alliance," the reckless charges of this 
man, instead of being rebuked, were eagerly taken up 
and reiterated by some professors and editors of his 
own Church, and our ministry and people in many 
places were taunted by their neighbors, who were 
simple enough to suppose the charges were true be- 
cause such men repeated them so confidently. These 
reckless and uncharitable writers would not thank me 
were I here to quote their names and the harsh utter- 
ances to which they so eagerly committed themselves 
against the Methodist people. Enough, that their 
Master and ours was so soon to roll away these re- 
proaches and vindicate us on this ground, also, as a 
true Church of Jesus Christ. But it made me trem- 
ble to think, what justification they would have found 
for their stinging invectives had the catastrophe oc- 
curred which Dr. Durbin feared when he wrote that 
final appeal, in 1855, entitled ''The Crisis!" Had we 
really failed, and abandoned the project of a mission 
to India for want of a suitable man to lead the way, 
then, indeed, Parsons Cooke and those who echoed his 
charges would have made the severest use of the fact 
to our disgrace and annoyance. God alone can know 
what the depressing effect would have been upon the 
missionary spirit of our Church for many years after- 
ward, or how long it would have been ere we could 
have recovered ourselves and stood where it is our 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 79 

joy and honor to stand to-day upon this question 
before Christendom and before God. 

But we may venture to predict that Parsons Cooke's 
" Centuries " will not be much read during the mil- 
lennium, while it is a comfort to think that he has, 
ere this, witnessed arrivals in the heavens, the gatli- 
ered fruits of Methodist missions from India and 
other heathen lands, which have amply convinced even 
him that he greatly mistook the spirit and purpose of 
the Methodist Church when he undertook to write 
these volumes ! 

Two of our children were then beyond the age 
when it is considered to be safe and proper, on ac- 
count of growth, education, and moral influence, to 
have them in India. To meet this diflaculty was, in 
our case, a heavy cross that only they know who have 
had to bear it. It is a wound that seldom heals in a 
parent's heart, but of which missionaries generally 
say but little, lest they be misunderstood. Yet it is 
a sorrow in which, no doubt, they have the special 
sympathy of Him for whom the sacrifice is made. In 
this case the cross was more weighty from our not hav- 
ing relatives on this side of the Atlantic with whom 
they could be left. They had to be intrusted to the 
care of strangers, whose interest in them had to be 
paid for. We had been led to hope for other arrange- 
ments, while we met the necessary expenses, where 
a sympathetic and Christian interest would have been 
secured for them ; but all failed, and at last the day 



80 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

of sailing drew so close tliat we had to accept the 
best arrangement that seemed available, which was to 
place them at a private school in Connecticut, in the 
hands of strangers whom we had only corresponded 
with, but had not seen, until the evening w^hen we 
went to place our darlings in their hands. 

We had some reproaches to bear from a few who, 
if we could judge from their remarks, would not 
resign a child of tlieirs in order to save any number 
of human souls. Of course such people could have 
little sympathy with " the Father of mercies," who, 
in man's great extremity, " spared not his own Son, 
but freely delivered him up for us all" — gave him 
up to a poverty where he " had not where to lay his 
head," and to sacrifice and suffering for sin in which 
" he poured out his soul unto death, and made inter- 
cession for the transgressors." In the yearnings of 
our own hearts, and amid these remarks by such 
mistaken friends, there came to our aid the appro- 
priate and sympathizing promise, " There is no man 
that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or 
wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, 
who shall not receive manifold more in this present 
time, and in the world to come life everlasting." To 
this blessed promise we clung both then and when far 
away, while our hearts ached as we thought of them. 
One of these dear boys we w^ere not to see again on 
earth, as he died four years after we left him. Yet 
now, twenty-seven years since that cross was lifted for 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 81 

Jesus's sake, and amid the blessed results, with four 
of our children, we trust, in heaven and the other four 
on earth in the Church of their parents, and some of 
these also honored and useful in the same holy work, 
we feel that God has been true to his promise — we 
have received the " hundred-fold more in the present 
time," and are willing to compare our experience with 
any of those whose thoughtless words gave us pain in 
this matter of resigning our children in 1856. 

In the preparation of this review of the circum- 
stances through which we were called to pass, in the 
founding and development of our mission in India, I 
cannot be too grateful that God put it into my heart 
to rescue my notes and letter books when, on the 
night of the escape from Bareilly, I had so hurriedly 
to fly and leave nearly every thing else in our home 
to the torch of the Sepoy. The help to me is very 
great. Had I to trust merely to my memory now 1 
should have to write with great hesitancy of the re- 
markable scenes through which we were called to pass. 
But, with these books and old letters and journals in 
my hands, I can live it all over again, and see and 
compare it safely and accurately. Truly has the poet 
said : 

" Sounds which address the ear are lost and die 
In one short hour ; while that which strikes the eye 
Lives long upon the mind ; the faithful sight 
Graves 't on the memory with a beam of light." 

My work in the preparation of the articles on the 
" Missions of English and American Methodism," for 

e 



82 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

ISTewcomb's Cydojpoedia of Missions^ had to be con- 
cluded before we sailed. This threw an additional 
burden upon weeks that were already sufficiently 
crowded with the cares and duties which the new 
condition of things had brought. But at length dil- 
igent toil conquered the situation, and our prepara- 
tions were completed in time for the meeting of the 
Annual Conference. 

On the 8th of April, 1856, we went to Salem 
to take our farewell of the Conference, over which 
Bishop Janes was presiding. We knew, and were 
persuaded, that the loving sympathies and prayers of 
these dear brethren would follow us to the last. It 
made me feel strong that I enjoyed their generous 
confidence for tlie peculiar and difficult duties which 
I had undertaken. Though neither they nor we 
could then imagine the " great fight of afflictions " 
into the very center of which they were pending us, 
nor the dark clouds of heathen cruelty which Avere so 
completely to envelop us after our arrival, that for 
many weary months they were to fear we were no 
longer among the living! Like that father of the 
faithful, who, " when he was called to go out into a 
place which he should after receive for an inheritance, 
obeyed, not knowing whither he went," so our sim- 
ple duty was obedience, and our confidence was trust 
in the same divine guidance. We " knew not what 
things might befall us there ; " but we knew our 
Guide, and that was sufficient. Enough that- He 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 8S 

knew, and had cliallenged our confidence in the 
words, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
of the world." It was not only sufficient, but even 
best, that we should not know in advance. Far better 
to wait and work on in the duty assigned us, assured 
that as our day so our strength should be. 

That night the farewell meeting was held in my 
church in Lynn. It was a crowded and memorable 
meeting. H. Y. Degan presided. A. D. Merrill 
offered the opening prayer. Dr. M. L. Scudder was 
the first speaker, his theme being " The Nature and 
ISiecessity of the Missionary Cause." He was fol- 
lowed by Dr. Jesse T. Peck on " The Grand Idea of 
the Missionary Work." Then Dr. Durbin rose and 
traced " The Divine Hand in the Inception of this 
Mission to India " (though how much of his theme was 
still unknown, even to him, these pages show). Turn- 
ing to me, as we stood there together in the pulpit, 
he gave me a charge on confidence in divine guid- 
ance, and then handed me my letter of instructions, 
my passport, and a letter of credit, and closed his ad- 
dress with much feeling, saying, " My brother, we 
give you a large discretion in the duty you have to 
fulfill for us." He then paused and exclaimed, " I 
long to live to see this mission to India firmly estab- 
lished ! " 

Next morning they accompanied us on board the 
ship at East Boston, and exactly at nine o'clock the 
Canada let go her moorings and passed away out on 



84: Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

her eastern course, my wife and myself, and our two 
little ones, waving our adieus from her deck. Up to 
the last Dr. Durbin had hoped he would be able to 
send at least one young minister with me, but we 
had to go alone. He promised, however, to send him 
immediately after us, so that he might overtake us in 
London and accompany us to India. But, for reasons 
which are now apparent, God controlled all action of 
this kind till the proper time had come for sending 
them after me. It was an omen of good to us, a few 
hours after leaving port, as we were arranging our 
surroundings for the night, to hear the sound of 
prayer from the adjoining state-room. Two voices, 
one after the other, pleaded with God for his provi- 
dential care over our ship and all that it contained ; 
and they added, what is so appropriate for Christians 
when traveling, that the Lord might grant that they 
should " grow in grace on the voyage, and be brought 
back again in the possession of a full salvation." How 
good that sounded, and in such a place ! We soon 
made the acquaintance of our praying neighbors, and 
found them to be Methodists from Canada. Their 
fellowship added much to the interest of the voyage. 



Ekom Boston to Baeeilly. 85 



CHAPTER III. 

" But I write the more boldly unto you in some measure, as putting 
you again in remembrance, because of the grace that was given me 
of God, that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles. 
, . . Yea, making it my aim so to preach the Gospel, not where 
Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man's 
foundation ; but, as it is written, 

They shall see, to whom no tidings of him came, 
And they who have not heard shall unders,tand." 

— St. Paul. (Rev. Ver.) 

My letter of instructions, drawn by Dr. Dnrbin 
and countersigned by Bishop Simpson, directed me, 
on onr arrival in London, to seek for all such infor- 
mation as would be useful to me in the duties which 
I had to fulfill. I found much courtesy from the sec- 
retaries of the different missionary societies in that 
city vv^hom I consulted, especially in regard to those 
portions of India which were as yet unoccupied by any 
Christian agency, as well as about matters of finance, 
administration, and missionary policy, on which I 
needed information, so as to be better able to under- 
stand what might occur in my own administration. 
I found among these gentlemen a hearty appreciation 
of the help which America was sending to aid them 
in the evangelization of British India, and fervent 
hopes were expressed that our success might be very 
abundant. 



86 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

Dr. Durbin's solicitude was following us all the 
time. He wrote to me nine days after I sailed. He 
was evidently anxious lest I should become discour- 
aged by his failure to find at least one man to go on 
with me from London. I may be excused in quoting 
his words on this subject. He says : 

" I hasten to say to you, Brother has finally 

declined. I am surprised and grieved at this. I have 

written to Brother , but am not sanguine of the 

results. ... I will give you a steady and hearty 
support. Be of good courage, and let those yet to 
come say, ' William Butler founded this mission.' . . . 
I hope to see Bishop Simpson next week in Cincin- 
nati, and I will do all I can to send you two assistants. 
I will in due time look to the interests of your chil- 
dren. Be of good cheer. Give our kind regards and 
the assurance of our prayers to Sister Butler, and 
may God bless and preserve you all, and give you 
success in your great undertaking." 

The solicitude shown by Dr. Durbin was so often 
and variously expressed that I presume it was caused 
by his apprehensions that our courage might not be 
fully sustained when we came to face the real difficul- 
ties of the heathenism which we were to encounter, 
and especially being thus left alone to face them, as, 
also, that the yearnings of our hearts for the darling 
boys left behind in strange hands might weaken our 
purpose to persevere in the sacrifice we had made. It 
could be no premonition of the fearful dangers into 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 87 

the midst of wliicli we were unconsciously steering. 
But, I am grateful to saj, we felt no fear, nor did our 
purpose falter for a moment. The consecration to 
our work was complete, and our trust in the care and 
guidance of God unhesitating. 

Having completed our outfit of books and clothing 
in London, and gained all the information available, 
we left Southampton docks on the 20th of August, 
1856, in the steam-ship Pera, and, w^ien a few miles 
down the Solent, we met and passed the consort ves- 
sel of the same line, the Ilijpon^ just arriving from 
Calcutta. The news was passed around that " she 
had on board the Dowager Queen of Oude.' ' Beyond 
tlie singularity of the fact that this was tlie first 
time an Indian queen had ever crossed the ocean, we 
paid no heed to her coming to London. But how 
much the eye of God above saw in the fact, as we 
passed her, is intimated in the Land of the Yeda. I 
had left behind me in London, Azeemoolah, the vakeel 
of the !N"ana Sahib, and he and she represented the 
two forces that were so soon to combine, and, with 
fire and blood, to render my mission nugatory, by 
sweeping every thing English and Christian from the 
soil of India ! Before I reached Alexandria they had 
both received the refusal of the English government 
to their proposals, and soon returned to India to 
work out the fanatical purposes which they had so 
cleverly concealed from those with whom they had 
been negotiating. 



88 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

After crossing the Bay of Biscay and passing the 
Pillars of Hercules, we reached smoother water, and 
social intercourse began. At that time Bishop Co- 
lenso's vagaries were subjects of discussion, especially 
his pamphlet about polygamy being scriptural, so that 
he declared he would admit to the Church and to the 
communion table a convert from heathenism, with all 
his wives ! He berated the missionaries for declining 
to accept his doctrine or follow his lead. Some of 
our gentlemen passengers undertook to defend the 
Bishop's views, and we had a lively discussion over 
the subject until it was closed by one of our number 
pressing the gentleman who defended the abomina- 
tion with the legitimate result of it, and demanding 
to know why polyandry should exclude from tlie 
table of the Lord if polygamy did not ? If the right 
to communion was conceded to a man with his four 
or live wives, wliy not to a woman with her four or 
five husbands ? Both unnatural and guilty conditions 
exist in India, though the latter is coming to an end. 
But here our opponent backed out, with tlie easy 
remark, " O that is a different thing," and there the 
discussion ended. 

We have abundant reason to be grateful that our 
mission from the very first, in common with evangel- 
ical missions, has made no compromise with sin, but 
has taken the high scriptural ground on this question, 
as well as on that of caste, and has thus preserved 
the peace and the purity of its clmrches. 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 89 

An old traveler like myself, moving across tlie 
world in these days, is constantly reminded of the 
changes and improvements that are taking place, and 
which are qnietly revolutionizing the civilization and 
methods in which people had snch confidence only a 
few years ago. How easy it would be to note scores 
and hundreds of these facts, but our limits forbid re- 
ferring to them, except very occasionally, in view of 
the more important matters for which our pages are 
reserved. This modern idea of iron ships, which are 
steered so accurately by steam instead of the weak 
human hand — the loading and unloading — the trim- 
ming of sails — the weigliing of the anchor — all done 
so easily by the same mighty agency, and thus I'educ- 
ing the number of men necessary to work a vessel to 
about one half of those formerly required, stands 
prominently out among these great improvements. 
Formerly England boasted of her " wooden walls," 
tlie " hearts of oak," of which her men-of-war and 
her merchant marine were made. But her poets no 
longer sing, as Pope did in days of yore, 

" Let India boast her palms, nor envy we 

The weeping amber and the balmy tree, 

While by our oaks the precious loads are borne, 

And realms commanded which those trees adorn." 

The gigantic strength and remarkable longevity of 
this pride of the British forests, which has done so 
much for England's exaltation among the nations, is 



90 From Boston to Babeilly. 

landed by Drjden with equal complacency, when he 
writes : 

" The monarcli oak, the patriarch of the trees, 
Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees ; 
Three centuries he grows, and three he stays 
Supreme in state, and in three more decays." 

But were these two poets to rise from the dead, few 
things would amaze them more than to find how 
nearly antiquated these objects of their boastings 
have become ; nor would they be less amazed on be- 
holding the colossal proportions and rapid speed of 
the iron structures which have superseded their be- 
loved but slow-sailing and diminutive " oaks." 

On the morning of the fifteenth day we cast anchor 
in the harbor of Alexandria, and here begins at 
once that capability of comparison and contrast which 
a former visit, at an interval of twenty-seven years, 
enables us to make from this, onward, showing that, 
not merely in progressive America, but even in the 
sluggish and conservative East, the spirit of improve- 
ment is abroad, and the world is being lifted up to a 
better life ; that even wars and commotions, commer- 
cial rivalry and the love of gain, are all made tributary 
by the Almighty providence in bringing forward that 
better state of things for which good men have been 
so long praying, and which together constitute the 
beneficent dawn of that day when the sun of right- 
eousness shall rise on every land, " with healing in his 
wings," bringing peace to earth and good-will to men. 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 91 

^o item of truth or blessing can ever be perma- 
nently lost to this world while God governs it. Its 
advocates may die, and its example and facts pass 
from the memory of living men, but the guardianship 
of God will be over its life and its future, and, like 
the grain in the hand of the mummies of this land, 
the sanlight, and ''the scent of water," will revive 
the power that has lain dormant for a thousand years, 
while a harvest of good, that might fill the world 
with fruit, may spring forth from it. One of these 
seeds was planted in this city over eighteen hundred 
years ago, and was soon afterward lost to view. But 
its feeble tradition came down the ages to the times 
of John Wesley, and his earnest and practical mind 
saw, in the constitution of the Church of Alexandria, 
a primitive episcopacy that was safe, and free from 
all sacerdotalism and prelacy, deriving its just powers 
from a synod of presbyters, whose executive it was, 
primus inter pares. He saw and approved that 
efficient and brotherly idea of the Christian ministry, 
and resolved to plant it in tlie virgin soil of the ISTew 
World. The Methodist Episcopal Church is the har- 
vest that has grown from that Egyptian seed. ]^o 
"lordship over God's heritage " — no ecclesiastical des- 
potism or hierarchal assumptions — can flourish in its 
presence. 

Had Alexandria only been faithful to the divine 
idea, her glory would not have departed ; nor would 
the crescent of the Arabian antichrist be floating 



92 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

to-day from her flag-staffs, the symbol of a nation that 
has, in the just judgment of God, sunk to be " the 
basest of kingdoms." One of her presbyters apos- , 
tatized from Trinitarian Christianity, broke the peace 
of God in Christendom, and introduced the heresy 
that still bears his name. Mohammedanism came in 
and dominated over a Christianity once so glorious 
in faith and government, but which had then sunk so 
low as to deny the divinity of " the Lord that bought 
them." The Methodist Episcopal Church ought, ere 
long, to plant again in Alexandria the polity which 
she there found, and the faith " once delivered to the 
saints," which would soon restore Egypt to God, and 
fulfill the merciful predictions which the Lord Jeho- 
vah has left to her as " a door of hope." He has 
expressly declared, " For they shall cry unto the Lord 
because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a 
saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them. 
And the Lord shall smite Egypt : he shall smite and 
heal it : and they shall return even to the Lord, and 
he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them." 
" Princes shall come out of Egypt ; Ethiopia shall soon 
stretch out her hands unto God." (Isa. xix, 20, 22 ; 
Psa. Ixvii, 31.) How severely she has been smitten, 
during the past two thousand years, is well known. 
But the tide has turned at last. The ''healing" pro- 
cess has begun. Across her territory now runs the over- 
land route to India. Telegraphs and railroads stretch 
through her great valley. Her Suez Canal bears the 



From Boston to Bareilly. 93 

immense commerce of the Eastern world, tlie Fresli 
Water Canal is extending irrigation and fertility to 
the south. Schools and Christian missions have 
come in to consummate the blessed cure, and God 
has taken guarantees, through her debt and the conse- 
quent English influence, with its control of Moham- 
medan despotism, that the fanaticism of her cruel 
creed shall not arrest the healing effects which Chris- 
tianity has introduced. 'No land has known deeper 
guilt before God, or passed through severer j)unish- 
ment for it ; and, doubtless, we may expect that the 
mercy and grace predicted for her " will much more 
abound ; " for He, whose promises are as certain as his 
threatenings, has predicted concerning her, " Whom 
the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt, 
my people." 

^N^early all these evidences of the transition which is 
now passing over the land of the Nile have been in- 
augurated since we were here before, and the increase 
of population under this improvement is remarkable. 
In Egypt proper, without her dependencies, there 
were, according to the census in 1847, a population 
of 4,542,620 ; in 1875 there were 5,500,000, but Sir 
Auckland Colin's census, taken last year, gives 
6,798,230. Cairo has now a population of 368,108 ; 
Alexandria, 208,775 ; Port Said, 16,560 ; and Suez, 
10,913. This advance intimates a great future ; while 
her fertility can again be made what it was when 
Rome conquered Egypt to make it the granary of 



94: Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

Southern Europe. It may be that more than her for- 
mer glory awaits this land, once the cradle of arts and 
sciences, when she shall " rise and shine " because her 
light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen 
upon her. 

In 1856, when we left Alexandria for Cairo, to 
cross the desert to Suez, they were making the last 
section of the railroad. We rested midday for lunch 
at the crossing of the K^ile — and that lunch was some- 
thing to remember, from the swarms of flies which 
surrounded us. The moment the cloth was lifted off 
the food they boldly settled down in millions upon 
every morsel of it, until it became black with them ! 
They seemed fearless, and were not to be wliisked 
away. We looked on with amazement, and the ques- 
tion arose, Was the fourth plague of Egypt reinflict- 
ed? We had evidence enough that the third had 
never been removed. But those flies ! only by the 
most desperate efforts could the hungry crowd of pas- 
sengers secure their food, cutting it up as hastily as 
possible, and then, while the left hand was kept busy 
fanning them off the plate, the other conveyed the 
morsels to the mouth ; and, even then, the nasty gray 
pests dared to follow the food to the very lips. The 
poor children, not as active as their elders in manag- 
ing matters, cried with vexation. It was truly a mis- 
erable meal. What made the aspect more repulsive 
was the constant presence of ophthalmia ; every third 
person seemed to have it. It was fearful to see the 



Feom Boston to Baeetlly. 95 

native children, as they were carried astride the shoul- 
ders of their careless and dirty mothers, with these 
abominable flies in a complete black circle round each 
eye, sucking the edge of the lid ; and then to think 
how easily the terrible and painful disease could be 
spread from one to another by the feet of these active 
agents of filth and impurity ! How truly expressive 
was the divine description that came to our remem- 
brance there, " The land was corrupted by reason of 
the swarms of flies." 

Christian purity alone can deliver Egypt from the 
burden of this and the other plague. Mohammed- 
anism and heathenism cannot and does not, either 
here or anywhere else. Poor Egypt ! she needs the 
cleanliness which only godliness can give her. 

Another relic of the past was before us as we sat 
and fought for our uninviting food. Gangs of men, 
women, and children were carrying clay on their 
heads in baskets to form the road-bed of the railway. 
Over these was an Egyptian " task-master," dressed 
very gaudily, and in his hand a whip with a long lash. 
He stood midway from where the earth was taken up 
to where it was deposited. His eye was busy watch- 
ing every individual of that toiling throng, and if he 
saw one of them lagging for a moment he noted it, 
but said nothing till that poor creature next came 
hurrying past him, when out would fly that long lash, 
winding around the naked body and leaving its cruel 
mark. He thus struck several of the poor girls, and 



96 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

kept them all going in a very lively fashion ; but 
what abject fear and misery were in their faces as 
they were thus driven in their enforced toil. 

In some such style, and not many miles from this 
very spot, about thirty -four hundred years ago, might 
be witnessed many similar " task-masters " goading a 
race of foreigners reduced to slavery ; and " they made 
their lives bitter with hard bondage," till Abraham's 
God could endure it no longer, and appeared for their 
emancipation. " The Lord said, I have surely seen 
the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and 
have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters ; 
for I know their sorrows ; and I am come down to 
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians." If 
it were proper to reserve sympathy from any who are 
oppressed — which it is not — it might surely be done 
here. These are Egyptians, the descendants of those 
selfish tyrants who grievously oppressed their fellow- 
creatures ; but now their own turn has come, and Abra- 
ham Lincoln's doctrine receives another illustration, 
so that every groan and drop of blood drawn by the lash 
of those primitive slaveholders from the bodies of the 
Hebrew race has been answered by another from the 
bodies of their own descendants by the despots of the 
past and the dynasty of the present, these Albanian 
foreigners, who all alike have pursued their own ag- 
grandizement by enforced labor, and by loading the 
long-suffering nation with debts that seem too colossal 
for redemption under their present miserable civili- 



From Boston to Baeeillt. 97 

zation. But if Christian honesty can obtain a fair 
chance to free these finances from the control of tlie 
debauched and self-aggrandizing hands which have so 
long manipnlated them, Egypt's credit may rise again, 
and her afflicted people be lightened of their load. 

That evening after sunset we entered " Grand 
Cah'o," as it used to be called. How quickly we 
realized that we were then standing in " The Gate of 
the Orient," and amid the scenes where the ^'Arabian 
Nights' Entertainments " originated ! Early the fol- 
lowing morning, as we came out on the balcony of the 
hotel, that wonderful vision, which is never forgotten 
by any who is privileged to see it, rose up before us, 
for there were the Pyramids ! Old Egypt was looking 
us in the face, or, as l^apoleon I. put it, as his army 
halted beneath their shadows : " Soldiers, forty cent- 
uries are gazing down upon you ! " But our visit to 
them had to come at a later date, and when we had 
more leisure to enjoy it. 

At eight o'clock A. M. we had to start on our jour- 
ney across the desert, eighty-four miles to Suez on 
the Ked Sea. The camels, bearing the mails, the 
specie, and passengers' luggage (for freight then 
went round the Cape of Good Hope, in sailing ves- 
sels), had left twenty-four hours in advance of us, 
and were now ahead. 

Our passenger caravan was made up of a long line 
of two- wheeled shigrams, each holding about six per- 
sons. The long pole was swung upon the wheelers, 



98 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

four mnles were attached, and these were kept at a 
moderate gallop, so that the wheels raight sink as 
little as possible in the sand (for road there was 
none). But how can one do justice to this peculiar 
equipage and its effects upon the passengers ! It was 
not quite as bad as riding upon a camel, but it was 
the next thing to that, with some inconveniences of 
its own added. The tall wheels flung np the sand 
and dust in a flying cloud that half suffocated us; 
then the vehicle rose and fell with the movement of 
the wheel mules, and swayed from side to side by its 
own momentum. Add the heat of early September 
in the desert to this, and our condition may be im- 
agined. We endured it as well as we could till we 
suddenly drew up under a tree, an acacia, called " the 
desert-tree," positively the only tree between Cairo 
and Suez, and this was half-way. The lunch was 
laid out for us, and, now that the disagreeable double 
motion had ceased, and the dust no longer rose, and 
the wretched flies were forty miles beliind us, with 
the delightful air of the desert, so elastic and inspir- 
ing, we felt disposed to improve the opportunity with 
which our hosts, the Peninsular and Oriental Com- 
pany, had provided us. They showed that, by the 
aid of six patient camels which had gone ahead of us, 
they could " SjDread a table in the wilderness." There 
was not an object in sight all round to the horizon, 
save the long line of camels which we had passed a 
few minutes before, and the Khedive's palace half a 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 99 

mile to the left. His liiglmess liad taken a notion 
some time before to have a palace in the desert, where 
he could have perfect solitude vrhen he chose. But 
every item of it, stones and all, had to be carried 
across a trackless waste of sand, over the intervening 
forty -four miles! Yet it was done, and finished in 
grand style, and when completed it was soon almost 
forgotten by the man at whose order the immense 
expense was incurred. The people to be pitied are 
the servants who are left in charge of this palace. 
They might as well be behind iron bars as there. 
Far better to be on Alexander Selkirk's island, for 
there they could walk about and see something green, 
but these wretched prisoners have only that one tree 
to look at, and probably could not find their way over 
those sands to either Cairo or Suez without a guide. 

As we sat at our meal the long line of camels came 
up and passed on with their burdens. Each group 
was in the special care of a responsible sheik, with 
drivers under him. How that cavalcade recalled 
the description of the ^'Midianite merchantmen" to 
whom Joseph was sold to be carried into this very 
Egypt. 

We had the curiosity to count the camels as they 
passed by, and found there were seven hundred of 
them — yet there was not a pound of freight, nothing 
but passengers, luggage, the mail bags, and the specie 
— " pieces of silver," truly. For nearly all this half 
century, the silver dug in the mines of Mexico has 



100 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

gone regularly once a montli (now fortniglitly) to 
London, where it is purchased and sent on to the East 
for exchange. It is minted again in Calcutta for use 
in India, and the rest goes farther east, where being 
without alloy, they are valued above all other silver 
coins; so that Mexico supplies India, China, and 
Japan with their currency. Bank-notes were then 
unknown in India, and gold is doubted by a people 
without education, and who fear being deceived, but 
silver they think they are safe in accepting, and all 
payments must be made in that metal to the multi- 
tudes. Our seven hundred camels were all needed, 
and it is likelv there was over a million dollars in 
that caravan. What a prize for the wild Bedouins to 
swoop down upon ! But the East India Company 
(for the miserable Turkish government could not hold 
them in check for a single week), by the concession of 
a sort of blackmail, and employing the very sheiks 
themselves, at a constant compensation, to guide this 
treasure to Suez, makes it more profitable to them to 
be honest than to live by plunder. 

After an hour's rest we started again, but found 
that the motion (as in palanquin riding) was much 
more disagreeable after eating than before. As the 
time rolled on the effects grew worse, until the sys- 
tem became disagreeably relaxed, and we learned the 
full meaning of '' the desert sickness " — in some re- 
spects worse than that endured at sea. How we 
longed for Suez and a glass of water ! At length, 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 101 

as the sun began to decline, we saw the little town 
ahead, and the Bed Sea beyond it. Sweeping round, 
we passed "Joseph's Well," and in a few minutes 
more drew up at the door of the hotel. Instantly 
came tlie cry for "water." Every one pleaded for 
it, and especially the ladies of the party. I hur- 
ried up the Egyptian waiter, and the precious 
fluid came, and was poured out and handed. But O 
such water for sick people ! It was muddy and 
tepid, and was promptly ejected, and the man 
asked how he could offer such water to ladies. He 
declared he had no other. I insisted he must run to 
the well we had passed and bring a fresli supply that 
would be cool and nice. But he answered, 

" Sir, that water is not fresh, it is brackish." 

" Well, go where this came from and bring some 
of that, and be alive about it." 

The poor fellow looked at me and replied, 

" Why, sir, there is no fresh water here ; not a 
drop." 

Amazed, I asked him, 

" Then where did you get this, which is fresh, if it 
is not drinkable ? " 

" Sir, it came from the I^ile." 

"How?" 

" In skin bottles, on the backs of camels." 

'No wonder it was muddy and warm, and that our 
desire for such a beverage ceased at once. Such w^as 
Suez in 1856, and such the supply of one of life's 



102 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

first necessities for the sixteen hundred people then 
residing there. Not a drop of fresh water within 
more than eighty miles, and the whole of that dis- 
tance a bed of hot and trackless sand, across which 
these skin " bottles " had toiled for four days, in the 
raging heat, on the camels' backs. 

In approaching Alexandria I intimated that even 
the sluggish and conservative East was feeling the 
thrill of our Christian civilization, and beginning to 
rise from the misery and helplessness of the long- 
suffering past. "What an illustration of this does 
Suez itself present on this second visit of ours. J^ow 
we return, and Suez has risen to the rank of a little 
city, with its ten thousand nine hundred and twelve 
people, and gardens and orchards are flourishing. A 
railway connects it with Alexandria and Cairo, and 
piers and docks and light-house have risen, as by 
magic, out of the barren sands. The Suez Canal now 
connects the waters of the Mediterranean with those 
of the Red Sea, and ships of various nations pass 
Suez almost every hour between sunrise and sunset. 
That canal is yielding its stockholders the largest 
dividends of any enterprise on earth. The steamer 
in which we sailed, drawing twenty-seven feet and 
nine inches, pays over £1,100 toll ($5,500) each time 
she goes through it. To crown all, the same Chris- 
tian civilization has dug a second canal beside the 
first to lead in the fresh water, so that the excellent 
water of the Nile now flows in abundance the whole 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 103 

way to Suez, and is beginning to " make tlie desert 
blossom as the rose." These facts amaze these Ish- 
maelite races, and well they may, for they are the 
miracles of modern civilization, of which Moham- 
medanism and heathenism never dreamed, and of 
which they are, and would always remain, destitute, 
if the races that have accepted " the Prophet of Naz- 
areth " did not come and originate them. 

What a world this could be made, and will be 
made, if Christianity gets control of it ! Surely 
paradise can be restored. It has not been in vain 
that humanity has waited long for Christian civiliza- 
tion to appear and end her religious uncertainties, to 
give her peace, and terminate all her preventable sor- 
rows. How these scenes here prove that Christianity 
has the " promise of the life which now is," and as well 
as of " that which is to come." Even here, on this, 
the most forbidding and difficult spot on -earth, she 
has conquered deficiencies of nature that seemed in- 
surmountable ; and, even in a temporal sense, fulfilled 
the promise of Jehovah : " I give waters in the wil- 
derness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my 
people, my chosen." He did so, without the aid of 
science, over three thousand years ago, across in that 
very peninsula, in view of where these notes were 
taken, opening a living stream in that desert for 
their use ; and a traveler, as he goes over the world, 
sees that, in proportion as men are "His chosen " 
people, he grants them the inspirations of sanctified 



104 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

intelligence to benefit themselves, and to bless tlie 
world aronnd them. So, that, when false religions 
fold their hands and despairingly accept as inevitable 
the miseries of life, our civilization, full of expe- 
dients born of hope and faith, 

'• Laughs at impossibilities, 
And cries, It shall be done." 

Thus, in cases like this, she builds her reservoirs, digs 
her canals, or sinks her artesian wells, and so unseals 
the rich supplies which make famines impossible, and 
causes the valleys to sing for joy. She then creates 
the railroad, and carries tlie superabundance to the 
destitute parts of the land, keeps down famine prices, 
and lets the hungry be fed. 

These Mohammedans here, if their house takes 
fire, will run out with a yell, sit right down on 
the ground before it in despair, and helplessly look 
on, abandoned to the conviction that, " if it was pre- 
destined to be consumed, there is no use resisting 
fate. Let it burn." Christianity, on the contrary, 
implants different impulse. She invents the steam 
fire engine, and the electric bell, and when the flame 
breaks out, the Christian runs and turns on the alarrn, 
so help is at his door in five minutes, and life and 
property are saved. The other civilization is not 
worthy to live. It is doomed to die, and Christianity 
alone deserves to be exalted in the earth ; yet these 
are but a part of that mighty measure of blessings 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 105 

for body and soul, for things temporal and spiritual, 
for tlie poor and downtrodden, which the true sons 
of God are toiling and contending to win for our 
race, in order to make them all the common heritage 
of every creature under heaven. Such men fling 
trembling cowardice and inglorious ease to the winds, 
and know well whose they are and whom they serve. 
And, as sure as God is God, they will never relax 
their diligence till the work is done, and their disin- 
terested devotion is crowned with universal victory. 
Well may they continue to challenge each other's 
valor in the unflinching conviction that "the great- 
ness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be 
given to . . . the saints of the Most High," and sing, 
as they do : 

" 0, "wlio would not a champion be 
In this the lorcUier cliivalry ? 
Uprouse ye, then, brave brother band, 
With honest heart and working hand; » 

0, there be those who ache to see 
The day-dawn of our victory : 
Work, brothers, work ; work hand and brain ; 
We'll win the golden age again. 
We will, we will, brave champions be 
■ In this the lordlier chivalry." 

In this blessed expectation all good men have been 
toiling and struggling, but have died ere the fruition 
came, though they exulted to witness every element 
in motion, material as well as intellectual and spir- 
itual, that seemed to tend to that grand result. We, 



106 Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 

to-daj, in our wider opportunity, are the inheritors of 
the past, and yet heirs of all the future. For we 
are reaping where they have sown ; and in this sense, 
too, may it be said, " God having provided some 
better thing for us, that they without us should not 
be made perfect." 

But, let us return to the poor helpless waiter who 
stood there with that rejected water-jar and the gob- 
lets in his hands. He and his brothers of the desert 
might think this good enough ; possibly not one of 
them had ever tasted of " a living spring " or of 
"water out of the stony rock." But we had, and 
knew by experience what it was, and that this was 
not at all like it ; yet what could we do in that dry 
and thirsty land, where no water then was? IN^o 
wonder the Holy Scriptures — an Oriental book, and 
full of Eastern scenes and allusions — speaks so fre- 
quently and so feelingly, too, of the need and value 
of this precious element, or that our blessed Lord 
puts the "cup of cold water" among the charities 
that he will reward at last. (Matt, x, 42.) The 
people of India call the water-carrier a BihishtL 
from Bihisht, paradise ; a beautiful name for his 
vocation, styling him a distributer of heaven's 
bounty ! How gladly we would have recognized his 
title had he put in an appearance at that hour 
with his TYiasKk of clear cool water from a Bareilly 
well! 

But to sit there any longer, and be tantalized by 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 107 

the sight of that jar of muddy, lukewarm water, was 
too much for our sick and feverish condition, so, in 
hope of finding something more suitable on board 
our steamer, we took up our hand baggage, and 
started for the pier, where the little tender was wait- 
ing to convey us three miles down the Red Sea, to 
where the great vessel lay at anchor. The tender 
seemed to take us very slowly ; but, at length, we 
reached there and hurried up the ladder, for the mo- 
ment forgetting the water, in our anxiety to secure 
state-rooms equivalent in position to those which 
we occupied on board the consort ship, which we 
left at Alexandria. 

A s we hurried into the saloon in this search, what 
was our surprise and delight to see, standing before 
us on the table, an immense glass basin, heaped up 
with broken ice from Wenham Lake, and round it 
stood decanters full of Ganges water, with tumblers 
all ready, and a man waiting to serve. Biliisht% 
" Heaven's bounty " truly ! The packages were 
pitched into the corner, state-rooms were forgotten, 
and a grand rush made by that ravenous crowd for 
the blessed beverage, provided so opportunely for us. 
It was a sight to see that crowd as they stood round, 
and with radiant faces, imbibed ^^ heaven's nectar," as 
they styled it. 

But what a meeting of the past and present was 
here, and what would Moses and the elders of Israel 
have said if the scene had been foretold to them! 



108 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

That, thirty three hundred years after they had 
crossed through this sea, a great vessel of over four 
thousand tons would lie at anchor about, or not far 
from, the very place where they had crossed, and that 
on board of her would be white-faced strangers fi-om 
a continent of whose existence they were entirely 
ignorant, but who would there be regaled with water 
(not from the Nile, or the Jordan, the nearest rivers, 
but) from the Ganges, of which they never heard, and 
that that water would be cooled by an article which 
they never saw, solidified water, that would melt 
away in an hour if exposed to such air, and yet that 
perishable article would have preceded them from 
their distant land a year before they left it and have 
gone twice under the equator, on its way to Calcutta, 
and again on its return, to meet them there, in the 
Gulf of Suez, so that it would have crossed the line 
for the third time, and yet be in splendid condition 
for their use after its long travel of twenty thousand 
miles ! What a miracle of the future civilization of 
the world would they have esteemed all this to be ! 
The manna in the wilderness would hardly have been 
more wonderful than that congealed water on the 
Red Sea. 

The " Tudor Ice Company," of Boston, conferred 
this boon upon India and the East, and, in blessing 
others, were themselves blessed with a generous rec- 
ompense. The cargo of ice paid amply for the re- 
turn cargo of India's products. The ice became not 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 109 

merely a luxury, but also a medical agent in liospitals, 
many physicians holding it to be a specific in certain 
conditions of the cholera, and so a help in the saving 
of hundreds of lives yearly. Eight years after this I 
had an opportunity of testing its value, as I lay pros- 
trate in an attack of the Asiatic cholera in the city of 
Calcutta. For thirty-six hours after the attack began 
the physicians attending me gave me nothing save 
Dr. Collis Brown's Chloriodine dropped on broken 
ice. The symptoms were controlled, and I was 
saved. 

The great ship weighed anchor next day and we 
were off. The following morning, while putting 
things to rights for the voyage, I was amazed to see 
enter the state-room where I was a curious looking 
animal as big as a cat, having a bushy tail as long 
as his body, and a keen-looking eye, with a ferret- 
like nose, as though made for poking into the narrow 
places. He was perfectly self-possessed, but conde- 
scended to glance up at me, with what intention I 
could not know ; but I did not like his cynical looks, 
and so sprung on to a chair and sung out for the 
steward. The man came running to see what was the 
matter, when I asked him what that creature there 
was. He smiled quietly at my alarm and said : 

" That, sir, is a mongoose. You need not be 
afraid." 

Just then the mate of the mongoose came saunter- 
ing in. But I hesitated to get down on the floor till 



110 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

the man explained furtlier. The mongoose is the 
ichneumon^ and is prized for its wonderful ability to 
search out and kill all sorts of snakes, rats, and ver- 
min of that class, which abound in the East. People 
in India try to domesticate them for this most useful 
purpose, but the freedom that is necessarily conceded 
to them, proves too much for their love of perfect 
liberty, and, unlike the cat, which is true to her 
home, they wander at length into the fields and do 
not return. On being assured that these were per- 
fectly harmless, and even liked to be noticed, I got 
down and made the acquaintance of the larger one, 
who had no timidity at all. He came on my invita- 
tion and got up on my lap, and when I stroked him 
he turned on his back, and was as happy as a kitten. 
But he was a queer-looking creature to handle, and 
soon went off to attend to the duties expected of 
him. 

The Bed Sea is nearly one thousand four hundred 
miles long, and from twenty to two hundred miles 
broad. I presume it is the hottest locality on earth, 
where even double awnings wont sufiiciently protect 
you from the fierce heat overhead from 8 A. M. till 
evening. More invalids die in that portion of the 
voyage than in all the rest of the way from India to 
England. There are light-houses only so far as the 
English influence extends on the Egyptian side, but 
on the Arabian side, and on that of JSTubia and Abys- 
sinia, not a light is seen ; so that for over six hun- 



From Boston to Baeeilly. Ill 

dred miles the utmost precaution is necessary to es- 
cape the dangers whicli the many islands and shoals 
present, especially at night. Going down we passed 
the port for Medina, where Mohammed died ; and 
that for Mecca, toward which every Moslem sets his 
face and directs his prayers when he performs his 
devotions. 

On the right hand we passed Suakim, the port of 
the Soudan ; then came to Mocha, famed for its cof- 
fee, and so on to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb (the 
Gate of Tears), so called originally, no doubt, from 
the dangers of its navigation. We saw four steamers 
lying wrecked here and on the shores of the island 
of Perim, in the middle of the passage. The voyage 
from Suez to the Straits requires nearly a week. 

Shortly after leaving Suez, the day being clear, we 
had a sight of the range whicli includes Mount Sinai, 
on which God came down in such terrible majesty to 
give -his holy law as the rule of life to men. What 
reflections that sight awakened ! And now, as we 
glide along by this ever-famous peninsula, where 
the Almighty required his people to "remember 
all the way " which he had led them for forty years 
in the wilderness, let us look at this Letter of In- 
structions, and see what is the duty which will begin 
in a few days more, and will soon tax heart and brain 
in its fulfillment for Him whose awful second Com- 
mandment pealed out from this mount of God, amid 
thunders and lightnings, against that fearful sin of 



112 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

image- worship of the very people to whom we are 
now going. They were then, and they are to-day, the 
most flagrant transgressors of this law of that " jeal- 
ous God, who will not give his glory to another, nor 
his praise to graven images ; " so that they have con- 
tinned to multiply their " gods" until they now count 
them by the million ! 
The letter thus opens : 

" Kev. "William Butlee : 

" Dear Beothee : It hath pleased God, we believe, 
to move you by his Holy Spirit to take upon you the 
office and work of establishing a mission within the 
jurisdiction of the British Empire in India, under the 
patronage and support of the Missionary Society of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church ; and w^e have re- 
ceived from the Hev. Bishop Simpson, who has epis- 
copal charge of said mission, a copy of the commis- 
sion which he has issued to you, giving you the pub- 
lic authority of the Church to establish and superin- 
tend the said mission. And the Bishop has directed 
us to give you such instructions as are necessary to 
enable you to accomplish your mission, according to 
the conditions of the appointment." 

I was then instructed to so arrange my journey 
as to reach Calcutta between the 1st of September and 
10th of October, and, in passing through London, to 
seek from missionary secretaries and others all the 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 113 

information available tliat would be likely to aid in 
carrying out the duty assigned me. and also to do the 
same on my arrival in Calcutta. 

Three fields were suggested for special examina- 
tion. The instructions ran, 

1. " Take such counsel concerning the particular 
field to be occupied as you may find and judge to be 
friendly and reliable ; and in your inquiries we direct 
your attention particularly to Eastern Bengal, a vast 
and populous district lying to the north-east of Cal- 
cutta, beyond the ancient city Dacca, toward the 
mountains. This field, we understand, is unoccupied, 
and is easily accessible ; and all the elementary books 
of the language of the people are ready prepared for 
the use of the missionary. If you find our informa- 
tion correct touching this country, and there be no 
counterbalancing difiiculties, we commend it to your 
attention. 

2. "But, before deciding on the selection of Eastern 
Bengal, as suggested above, we wish you to inquire 
particularly w^ith respect to the Rohilla country, and 
the regions lying still farther west and north-east. 
Our information leads us to think favorably of the 
north-west of India ; and the chief objection that 
occurs to us, in reference to it, is, that it is more 
generally supplied with missions than Eastern Bengal. 

3. "And, in addition to these fields, you will give 
attention and make special inquiries concerning the 
Bellary country, lying on the north of Mysore ; and 



114: Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

if yoii find strong grounds to believe it is a more 
promising field for our new mission, you are hereby 
authorized to stop at Madras and make further in- 
quiries ; and, if need be, go out in person and examine 
the country. But we do not advise you to stop at 
Madras, unless your previous inquiries shall strongly 
confirm our present limited information in favor of 
Bellary as the place for our new mission. We com- 
mit this matter to your discretion after due inquiry." 
The field selected, and, on report, approved by the 
Board at home, I am next instructed as to the form 
which the mission was to take, and what was to be its 
special work. It says : 

4. " In selecting the people among whom you will 
establish our mission, we wish you to have reference 
solely to the natwe jpojpulation. If there be a Euro- 
pean population present in the country or city in 
which you establish our mission, and the mission can 
be made to serve their spiritual interests, we shall 
consent and be glad ; provided such service does not 
interfere with the execution of your mission among 
the heathen. We send you to preach the Gospel to 
those who have not heard and do not hear it, and all 
your plans must be devised with this end in view. 

5. " This leads us to say, in all your plans for found- 
ing and executing your mission, you will regard the 
preaching of the word to the people as the principal 
efiicient means of their awakening and conversion, 
and all other means as only auxiliary to this great 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 115 

efficient instrument ordained of God. The establish- 
ment of schools, and the distribution of tracts and 
books in and by the mission, are subordinate to the 
great design of the mission, which is, to preach the 
word to the people by the living minister." 

The letter then proceeds to deal with questions 
of administration of the mission to be thus founded, 
and of its organization and correspondence. To all 
this Bishop Simpson added his admonition: "Brother 
Butler, lay deep and hroad foundations for Method- 
ism in IndiaP In the selection of a iield, I was 
forbidden to enter "upon another man's line of things 
made ready to our hand." We were to respect the la- 
bors of those Christian brethren, going "where Christ 
was not named," and there laying our own founda- 
tions. There was little temptation to any unsectarian 
Christian to do otherwise, in view of the many por- 
tions of the land, with millions of people to whom no 
one had yet come with the Gospel. There was, there 
is to-day, an abundant choice of unoccupied fields. 
It is likely that even yet one half of the people of 
India have never heard the offer of salvation through 
Christ. The south, the sea -coast, and the great 
cities, and along the lines of the leading thorough- 
fares, are more or less occupied ; but the centers, the 
dense populations of the agricultural regions, and 
the multitudes in states ruled by native sovereigns, 
are still without the Gospel. Of the two hundred 
and sixty millions of people in India, perhaps 



116 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

not one half of tliem have yet seen the face of a 
missionary, or ever heard the name of Him who died 
for them ! It was easy enough to find unoccupied 
fields. But I had to bear in mind that I was to select 
a field where "broad and deep foundations" could be 
laid — a wide field, as well as an unoccupied one, wide 
enough to avoid being either divided up by a variety 
of languages, so that we could not work connection- 
ally, or else be sandwiched in between existing mis- 
sions, and so unable to expand adequately, and have 
room for development into a Conference organiza- 
tion, if God's good hand should prosper us to such a 
result. The number of languages in India is so 
many, that you can pass out of one into another in 
certain localities, within the space of two or three 
hundred miles. It is not easy to say how many there 
are, but twenty -three leading languages, and three 
times as many more limited ones, are commonly al- 
leged to be in use. 

Another difficulty of selection lay in the fact, that 
those who had preceded us in their explorations had 
naturally sought the larger cities, even when they had 
to pass over hundreds of miles from the last mission 
to do so. 

We, too, were anxious to have our share of such 
great centers of life and infiuence, as well as to have 
them in wide sweeps of the land, and yet in territory 
entirely unoccupied by any other missions. I was 
not aware, until I made the trial, how difficult it was 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 117 

to find all these advantages combined in such a way 
as would stand the test of experience and time, and 
yield entire satisfaction in the review a quarter of a 
century later. 

E"or was this all. It was essential that, in the field 
chosen, our missionaries should not be located where 
they could not freely communicate with each other, 
and be visited with the regularity that our system 
required. Neither was it then desirable that they 
should be looftted in territories ruled by native 
princes, and away from the protection of British offi- 
cials. These, with other considerations that I need 
not enumerate, led me to decide against such locali- 
ties as Bellary, the Deccan, Rajpootana, and Dacca as 
not the best for our purpose. Dacca at first seemed 
desirable, but, when I came to examine its claim, I 
found it situated in the delta of the Ganges, with the 
great Brahmaputra on the other side, lying very low, 
and intersected with scores of rivers and streams 
that are all circuitous, and which in the rainy sea- 
son swell and inundate the whole district like an 
inland sea, so that from the middle of August to the 
middle of October it becomes unhealthy. That 
country is too much cut up to permit roads to be of 
any use. Boats are the chief reliance, as in Burmah, 
for moving about. But the delay and difficulty of 
reaching from place to place is so great that, even 
now, one can go from Calcutta to Bombay — fourteen 
hundred miles — in less time than it requires to go 



^ 



118 Fkom Boston to Baeeillt. 

from Calcutta to Dacca, although the latter is only- 
one hundred miles from the mouth of the Ganges. 
The expense is corresponding to the loss of time. In 
passing, I may remark that Dacca is famous for the 
delicacy and beauty of its muslin, which is worn by 
the upper classes of India, and, indeed, finds its way 
as an article of luxury all over the world. Astonish- 
ing statements are made of its manufacture. Here is 
a sample, in regard to the spinning of the thread, 
which has to be done with such amazing nicety that 
the operation is performed with the fingers on a fine 
steel spindle by young women who could only work 
during the early part of the morning, while the dew 
was on the ground ; for such was the extreme tenuity 
of the fiber that it would not bear manipulation after 
the sun had risen. From their fineness these muslins 
were called Abrawan, or " flowing water," and Shab- 
nam, or " evening dew." 

Many other parts of the country were examined or 
inquired about, but were declined for various reasons, 
as not being what we most desired. There was a 
peculiar feeling of sadness involved in visiting, and 
then turning away from, the localities thus decided 
against. Here were districts containing from one to 
four millions of people, on whom we looked in our 
search for the suitable field which we sought. It was 
in each place within our discretion to say, " Here we 
will settle and plant the Gospel among these people," 
so long sitting in darkness, and to whom for a day or 



Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 119 

two the light had come at last ; or, we could saj, 
" ]^o," and turn off, and take that light away with us, 
leaving them again in darkness, feeling that another 
generation would probably pass away ere any one 
else would come, like us, searching for a new mission 
field, to give light to.these millions sitting " in the 
shadow of death ! " It seemed something awful to 
be invested with such a power, but it had to be exer- 
cised till sufficient had been seen and considered to 
make the comparison ; and then to select from among 
them all the most suitable as the mission field to 
whose evangelization our Church would devote her 
means and energies. 

As we went round, prospecting so anxiously and 
prayerfully, we would occasionally meet with English 
gentlemen, devoted servants of God in high position, 
both in the civil and military departments of the gov- 
ernment, who gladly welcomed us into their districts, 
and used most earnest persuasion to have us termi- 
nate our wanderings and settle down with their peo- 
ple. Most liberal offers of pecuniary aid to the 
mission to be established were held out. One of 
these noble men, Mr. T acker. Commissioner of the 
Benares Division, made very special efforts to attract 
the mission into his dominions. He seemed to antici- 
pate that our work was going to have a grand devel- 
opment, and he wanted to secure the blessing for his 
people. But there was already, apart from the mis- 
sions in the city of Benares, an Episcopal Mission at 



120 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

several points in his district. Still he pleaded, not- 
withstanding, that the supply was not a tenth part of 
the demand. He even called the missionaries of 
that society together, and urged them to appreciate, 
without delay, the chance of the help we could bring 
for the evangelization of the people, by calling in all 
their scattered missionaries and concentrating them in 
the south of the division, and resigning the whole 
north to us, with head-quarters at Goruckpore. His 
argument with me, and which was most earnestly 
urged, was, that "so much preparatory work had 
been done throughout the district that we should reap 
a harvest far sooner than we could in new and un- 
broken ground." But, to me, this plea spoke caution 
rather than encouragement, for I saw it would be a 
departure from our principle of non-interference with 
the labors of other Christian brethren, nor did it seem 
just, as they had in a measure broken up their field 
and sowed the seed, that we should step in between 
them and the harvest for which they had toiled and 
prayed. I had to decline, greatly to his regret. 
When, some time after, I wrote and informed him 
that I had decided for the valley north of the Ganges, 
he replied with much feeling, repeating his opinion 
of the more quiet class of people, and greater prepa- 
rations for success we would have found within his 
limits, and concluded with the words : " But now 
you will have to take the bull by the horns 1 " Well, 
we were willing to incur that risk. Tliough far 



From Boston to Bareillt. 121 

beyond his figure and his fears, the danger had to be 
faced within six months, which was to give us a real- 
izing sense of what David meant when he invoked 
the divine protection, and pleaded, "Be not far from 
me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. 
Many bulls have compassed me : strong bulls of 
Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me 
with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion." 
Psa. xxii, 11. 

"Well, they truly did compass and gape and roar, 
and also blasphemed our Christ, and we are now 
returning to behold how wonderfully our God con- 
trolled all this rage for his own glory ; and to do in 
Bareilly, and in Lucknow as well, exactly what David 
said he would do after he was similarly rescued : " I 
will declare thy name unto my brethren : in the midst 
of the congregation will I praise thee." Yerse 22. 
We go, also, gladly to anticipate and claim the vic- 
tory in which this defeated resistance is yet to issue, 
as he says, in verse 27 : " All the ends of the world 
shall remember and turn unto the Lord : and all 
the kindreds of the nations shall worship before 
thee." Exactly ; for each resistance gave God his op- 
portunity of victory, and each victory is most assur- 
edly leading on to the final triumph, in which the 
contest is to issue to the praise of his glory. God's 
Church need not fear, "though the earth be re- 
moved, and though the mountains be carried into the 
midst of the sea : " because " God is in the midst of 



122 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

her ; she shall not be moved : God shall help her, and 
that right early." 

Another good man, Mr. Atherton, holding a high 
position as Judge of the Sarun District, hearing of 
our arrival, so earnestly desired that we should con- 
sent to plant our mission within his jurisdiction, that 
he addressed Mr. Tucker, requesting him to inform 
us of his good-will and ready assistance. He wrote : 
" If the American missionaries wish to face the devil 
in his den, let them come to this place, and make 
Chuparah their head-quarters. I will subscribe one 
hundred rupees a month toward the mission so long 
as I hold my present appointment, or any other of 
equal value, and I am sure others also would sub- 
scribe cheerfully. Inclose this note to Mr. Butler, 
that he may know a welcome awaits him and his 
brethren in my places." 

Six hundred dollars per annum from a Christian 
whom I had not yet seen, and who belonged to an- 
other denomination ! Such was the sympathy shown 
by some English gentlemen for the perishing heathen 
around them ! 

A few words on the field chosen, and accepted by 
the Board, may conclude this chapter. It was a very 
remarkable Providence that reserved for us such a 
wide, unoccupied, and, indeed, pre-eminent field, as 
this has proved to be. 

For nearly forty centuries the Brahmins have been 
studying the soul and its destiny under the shadows 



Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 123 

of the Himalayas, in the great Gangetic valle}^ 
There its wonderful epics were composed, there are 
its great Mela grounds, there are the scenes of Yish- 
nu's reputed incarnations, and probably there were its 
Yedas and the Shastars writteu. 

My letter of instructions, among the others, men- 
tions the Rohillas. This warlike race occupies the 
western half of the great north valley ; yet, by itself, 
Rohilcund would have been too small a field of ac- 
tion for the Church w^iich I represented ; but east 
of that, in the same great valley, and only divided 
from it by an arbitrary line, were the kindred people 
of Oude, but their bigoted sovereign kept the gates 
of his kingdom closed against Christianity up to 
within a few weeks of our arrival. Hohilcund and 
Oude together would constitute one of the grandest 
mission fields in India, or in the world. This great 
valley, speaking generally, is bounded on the north 
by the Himalaya mountains, on the west and south 
by the Ganges, and on the east by Goruckpore. 
Within these limits, which would measure about four 
hundred miles long, and an average of over one hun- 
dred and forty miles wide, there are now, it is calcu- 
lated, nearly twenty millions of human beings. 

The census shows that in this extensive valley 
there are seven hundred and two towns which have 
from one thousand to five thousand of a population ; 
twenty-nine towns with from five thousand to ten 
thousand ; and twenty-two towns and cities with from 



124: Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

ten thousand to three hundred thousand souls in 
each. What an opportunity of Christian usefulness 
did God provide here for the Methodist Episcopal 
Church ! 

The density of the population in some of the dis- 
tricts of this valley is up to four hundred and forty- 
two to the square mile. With the exception of a 
mission of the Episcopalians in one of these cities, 
this great mass of humanity have none but us to look 
to for the means of grace and salvation. If these 
millions are saved, it will be by our faithfulness to 
the solemn trust so proWdentially placed in our 
hands ; and if lost — if they go down to an idolaters' 
eternity — it will be in consequence of our neglect, or 
of our inability, to save them. ]^o Church on earth 
has a grander opportunity than Methodism possesses 
to-day in that valley. 

How wonderful that it should have been reserved 
for us till we were ready to enter it ! It was only 
a few weeks before I reached Lucknow that Oude 
w^as annexed, its king pensioned and removed to 
Calcutta, while his mother, the Dowager Queen of 
Oude, whom I passed as I came out of Southampton 
in August, had returned with the intelligence that 
the government in London would not reverse the 
action of the Governor-General and Council in India. 
The kingdom was henceforth to be governed by Brit- 
ish officers. Sir Henry Lawrence was appointed as 
the head of its administration. But before he could 



Prom Boston to Baeeillt. 125 

arrive at Liicknow from the Punjab, I had readied 
its gates, and found them just opened to Christianity. 
So I entered and passed on up to Bareillj, and took 
possession in the name of my divine Master, planting 
the standard of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
the central city of that great Gangetic valley, ours 
forever to cultivate for Christ, ^' till its idols shall be 
utterly abolished, and the Lord alone shall be exalt- 
ed " among these millions. 

This, then, is our parish in India. But our " good- 
ly heritage," though given us of God, was not going 
to be conceded to us by " the rulers of the darkness 
of this world," Satanic or human, without a terrible 
resistance. A struggle, the most fearful that Chris- 
tianity ever passed through on the Oriental hemi- 
sphere, was soon to rise and combine its energies to 
resist our entering, where " Satan long had held his 
throne :" so that only ten weeks elapsed from the 
time when we obtained a home in Bareill}^, till that 
resistance burst forth in " blood and fire and pillars 
of smoke," and for long months we were unheard of 
and were even given up as dead! The whole of the 
terrible story, and how we were saved, and how God 
"made the wrath of man to praise him," and re- 
strained its remainder, are all told in my other book, 
The Land of the Yeda, and need not be further re- 
ferred to here. IRow we are returning, and we shall 
have the opportunity of seeing how far my convic- 
tion, uttered at the time, that the Sepoy Rebellion 



126 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

would not only fail, but that, instead, it would even 
throw the country forward a hundred years nearer to 
its salvation — how far that expectation has been real- 
ized. So here we pause until the next ocean is 
crossed, and we stand once more in " The Climes of 
the Sun," and contemplate the results which have 
been there wrought out during the past twenty-five 
years. 

We are now approaching the southern end of the 
Hed Sea. Abyssinia is close on our right, and Yemen 
in Arabia, with its port of Mocha, on our left. 
Before us are the Straits of Bab-el-Man deb, the Island 
of Perim, with its welcome light-house, being in the 
center. How grateful we felt for preserving mercy, 
as we rounded into the unique harbor of Aden, to re- 
plenish our resources, and prepare for our run across 
the Indian Ocean. 

This port of Aden is a place of remarkable strength 
and of great importance, holding somewhat the same 
position between Africa and Asia that Gibraltar holds 
between Europe and Africa. The etymology of the 
name is supposed to be the same as Eden (or Para- 
dise), and that it was so designated by the Arabs to 
express their sense of its climate and the commercial 
advantages for which it has long been famous. The 
sunshine is perpetual, and we did not find the heat 
too oppressive Kain seldom falls, sometimes only 
once in three years, but the water supply is ample, 
by means of immense reservoirs built by English 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 127 

enterprise, so that its thirty thousand inhabitants and 
all the ships that call are ampl}^ supplied. The Arab 
women were unveiled, and appeared quite at their 
ease in the presence of strangers, as their cousins, 
the daughters of Judea, did in days of old. About 
half a mile out from the city, at the reservoirs, I saw 
numbers of them who had come, like Rebekah, to 
draw water, and some of them did look as handsome 
as, no doubt, she did. My foreign costume and white 
face made me, evidently, an object of amusement to 
them, though it was all modestly and kindly carried 
on. The warm olive color was certainly no detriment 
to their beauty, and probably they exhibited about 
the very tinge which was borne on the cheek of the 
lovely " mother of all living " in the original Eden 
somewhere in the northern part of this same pen- 
insula. 

But our rambling must close, and we hurry on board 
again. How the sense of responsibility deepens as 
the expected duties draw nearer, yet we are kept calm 
and trustful as they approach. With a profound 
respect for the authorities whose commission I bear, 
and with a humble reliance upon the providential 
guidance of Him in whose name they have sent me, 
and whose blessed promise, " Lo, I am with you al way,' 
even unto the end of the world," now becomes more 
close and precious, as the distance from them mani- 
festly grows wider, and this final start is made. 
Seven thousand miles now separate us from them, and 



128 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

from tbe loved ones and dear friends whom we liave 
left behind, dwelling amid the peace and security of 
our Christian civilization in loved America. How 
intense were all these feelings and thoughts as we 
weighed anchor, and run out in the shades of the 
evening through the narrow entrance into that 
Oriental ocean, on the other side of which was India ! 
"We glanced back with sympathy, and, as we looked 
forward with hope, our thoughts were well expressed 
in the simple words of the poet, 

" To some thou givest at ease to lie, 

Content in anchored happiness ; 
Thy breath my full sail swelling, I 

Across these broadening seas would press. 

" At friendly shores, at peaceful isles, 

I touch ; but may not long delay ; 
Where thy flushed East with mystery smiles 

I steer into the unrieen day," 



Fkom Boston to BAEEiLLr. 129 



CHAPTER lY. 

So might I view Sin's moldering empire fail, 
And the bright coming of the Saviour hail 1 
Yet, Lord, before that solemn day arrive, 
Before I cease to labor, cease to live, 
Though not to me the blessing should be given, 
To see earth covered with the rays of heaven, — 
Still may I, gracious Lord of life and light, 
Snatch some lost heathen from eternal night, 
Plant the first church upon some Pagan shore, 
. Gaze on its offsets branching into more. 
Would others reap where I alone have sown ? 
Others shall make the glorious cause their own ; 
And I, exultiug, view the dawning ray, 
Though they may have the fuller blaze of day. — Anon. 

OuE good sliip was The JVichia, Captain Tronson 
commanding. The "monsoon," or stormy rain-fall, 
had not jet ceased, and before reaching 

" The golden gates of day, 
Which open on the palmy East," 

we enconntered one of those tropical storms, so com- 
mon in these seas at certain seasons of the year. The 
thunder and lightning, and the intense darkness and 
amazing downpour, were an experience not to be soon 
forgotten. How calmly and firmly each man stood 
to his post of duty, and what a solemn pause was all 
over that steamer as she contended with the raging 



130 FuoM Boston to Bakeilly. 

elements. But we were protected, and came out into 
the sunlight without a spar broken, or a sail lost. 

We were not so fortunate on the next occasion, in 
about the same locality. A cyclone came up, and 
struck us ere we were ready for it. Our ship. The 
Lady Jocelyn^ an immense vessel built during the 
Crimean war as a troop ship, was only " an auxiliary 
screw " steamer — the little propeller, of sixty horse- 
power, was used merely for going in and out of port, 
or for crossing the line, w^iere the wind so often fails. 
"When not used it could be lifted up, and the great 
ship then went under canvas alone. In this con- 
dition, on the occasion in question, proceeding slowly 
on our way, the cyclone was seen approaching. To 
get out of its path was impossible within the tnne. 
So on it came roaring, the water and air constituting 
a great black column that towered up toward the sky, 
revolving rapidly on its axis, and yet moving in a 
plane of its own, like the annual and diurnal motions 
of the earth. Amid terrible suspense it swept down 
upon us, and in ^yq minutes tore away our sails, and 
bending the great vessel over, shifted some of our 
cargo, and left us helpless for a time. The effect was 
remarkable. The inclination of the deck to the 
water made it look as though the ocean were a hill- 
side. The dreadful power passed on, and we were 
glad to find that our spars were unbroken. Soon 
fresh sails were brought up from below, and the 
gallant ship was trimmed again. The engineer lit his 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 131 

fires, and dropped the screw, and in six hours she 
was recovered to a better position, and we ran for 
Cape Town, where she was quickly refitted. 

An unfortunate ship, according to her reckoning 
only about twelve miles south of us on tliat day, was 
struck by the same cyclone about one hour ere it 
reached us, and not only lost her sails, but also had 
her masts broken, and was left like a helpless log 
upon the water. She did not reach her destination 
till nearly four months after our arrival. The descrip- 
tion of the sufferings to which those on board were 
reduced, before help overtook them, was dreadful. 

It was a singular coincidence that the English and 
American Methodist missions to India should both 
have commenced their labors under afflictive circum- 
stances, in each case the sorrow being connected with 
their superintendent. On the 3d of May, 1814, the 
superintendent of the first band of Wesleyan mis- 
sionaries,, our own Dr. Coke, proceeding to Cey- 
lon, suddenly died within three days' sail of India. 
His brethren, deprived of their zealous and devoted 
leader, landed in sadness upon these shores. On the 
doctor's death, James Lynch (referred to in my second 
chapter), one of the ^ve missionaries that accompanied 
him, was appointed to take charge as -superintendent. 
He labored nearly thirty years, and then returned to 
Ireland, his native land. He was there appointed to 
the Comber Circuit, but being feeble, I was sent to 
assist him to finish his year. The good old man took 



132 Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

quite a fancy to his youthful colleague. We traveled 
and labored together. I derived much of my early 
missionary inspiration from association with this 
devoted servant of the Lord. On ray way to India, 
I found him on the platform of the Wesleyan Mis- 
sionary Anniversary in Exeter Hall, London, very 
feeble, but calmly awaiting his departure to a better 
world, while the boy preacher that he so kindly 
encouraged fifteen years before sat by his side, and 
was on his way to that very India as superintendent 
of the American Methodist Mission to be established 
there. 

Thus it happened that to me was given the peculiar 
honor of being a sort of connecting link between the 
first and the last established missions of Methodism 
in India — a living bond, as it were, uniting English 
and American Wesleyanism in the foreign field. I 
appreciate the privilege, and would rather thus stand 
— a link in this honored ministry — than to wear the 
gaudiest miter of him whose ministerial confidence 
is the empty figment of a so-called " apostolical suc- 
cession ! " 

J^early half a century passed away, and on the 19 th 
of September, 1856, another ship neared the coast of 
India ; this time bearing, not English, but American 
Methodist missionaries. They are also the first band 
that their Church has sent to India, and they, too, are 
overwhelmed with anxiety and distress, for they fear 
that their superintendent is no longer among the 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 133 

living ! He had preceded tliem seventeen months 
before, had selected the field, and anxiously awaited 
their coming ; passing, in the meanwhile, through the 
"great fight of afflictions," in which our work in 
India began. 

The pilot, who had come on board their ship in the 
Bay of Bengal, had informed them that the terrible 
Sepoy Rebellion was raging over the interior of 
India. But let one of themselves describe their 
feelings, as he did afterward in a letter to me. He 
says : " We knew nothing of the fearful scenes 
transpiring in India until our pilot came on board, 
on the morning of the 19th instant, bringing files of 
the latest papers. After we had recovered ourselves 
a little from the first blow, we turned to the account 
of the Bareilly tragedy. I read it aloud, trembling 
almost to read from line to line. Twenty-nine out 
of eighty-four Europeans escaped, and your name 
unraentioned ! Our worst fears were excited. We 
saw, however, that only ofiicial names were given ; 
but, after resolving the matter, could encourage our- 
selves but little to hope for your safety. We re- 
mained in this state of intense suspense until four 
P. M. on Monday, the 21st, when we cast anchor at 
Garden Heach. I hastened on shore, called on 
Brother Stewart, and learned the joyful tidings of 
your escape to JSTynee Tal, and also Mr. Owen's 
safety, of which we had been uncertain. Our interest 
was all concentrated in this question, ' Are Brother 



134 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

Butler and family safe f ' . When we learned this, 
our gratitude and gladness were such we scarcely 
thought for the time of your losses and sufferings ; it 
seemed enough that you were safe. ' O that men 
w^ould praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his 
wonderful works to the children of men.' I returned 
to the ship, then were we glad, thanked God, and 
took courage." 

On the 8th of October, 1883, still another ship is 
appi'oaching the shores of India, but no sorrow clouds 
this arrival. The shadow of death is not here. 
Loving friends are waiting to welcome " the father 
and mother of the J^orth India mission " to their old 
field of labor, while all is gratitude and joy. Good- 
ness and mercy have followed them, and here they 
are once more crowned with loving kindness and 
the favor of the Lord. 

But, ere we indulge this grateful strain, let us 
speak again of our former voyage, when we came as 
strangers, with hearts full of anxiety for the field 
which we had to choose, and the w^ork which we had 
to inaugurate. On that occasion, instead of landing, 
as now, at Bombay, wliich was not then, as to-day, 
the Gate of India, we went up on the other side, by 
Ceylon, to Calcutta. After rounding Cape Comorin, 
we ran into Point de Galle for a few hours, to land 
the mails, and had our first experience of 

" The spicy breezes " 
That " blow soft o'er Ceylon's Isle." 



From Boston to Bakeillt. 135 

We landed, and went to tlie Wesleyan mission house, 
and were cordially welcomed. In company with om' 
kind hosts, we went out to visit the cinnamon groves, 
which I suppose have given rise to the idea of these 
breezes. 

Returning to the mission for tea, before going 
again on board, we had our first opportunity of 
hearing " the Redeemer's name sung " in a heathen 
land. 

As we partook of some refreshment, the soft, sweet 
strains of a hymn came from an adjoining building, 
and recognizing the precious tune, we eagerly asked, 
" What is that ? " and one answered, " That is a class- 
meeting just commencing." "And what are the 
words ? " How delightful was the reply, — " The 
w^ords are : 

* Jesus, lover of my soul, 
Let me to thy bosom fly,' 

in the Singhalese language." 

This incident intensified thoughts which had been 
in my mind ever since I had offered to go to India, 
in relation to the adaptation of the Gospel to these 
people. As I came nearer I longed to learn from 
tho^e who would fully understand me whether the 
Christian religion was really all to these Orientals that 
it w^as to redeemed people in our Western hemi- 
sphere? Could they have an experience like our 
own? I felt that the very life of my mission de- 
pended upon the reply to this question. As a Church 



136 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

we could not long keep up our interest in a work of 
evangelization that fell short of this. To elevate, by- 
education and Christian civilization, was good in its 
way, but any change of religion or moral conduct 
that was not accompanied by the conscious salvation 
of God in the hearts of our converts would not long 
command the sympathy and generous support of the 
Methodist people. This I felt and knew, so I went 
to India with anxiety on my mind in regard to this 
vital question, and my first impression was favorable. 
Had time permitted I would have introduced the sub- 
ject right here, but we had to hurry on board, with 
the question unasked. The desire to know, however, 
was intensified, and two days later, on arrival at 
Madras, the delay there being longer, I took a boat 
and went ashore, resolved to terminate my solicitude 
on the subject. 

Finding my way to the Wesleyan mission house, I 
was fortunate in meeting the cliairman of the district 
(their title for presiding elder). Rev. Mr. Hodson, 
and, after informing him who I was, and what I 
had come to do, I asked this venerable man, who 
would certainly understand me, what was the char- 
acter of the religious experience of their native 
converts. 

He seemed surprised at the question, and asked 
what I meant by it. I explained that I wanted to 
know whether these Hindu people could be converted, 
and have the witness of the Holy Spirit to the fact 



Fkom Boston to Bakeili^y. 137 

of their acceptance with God, as we in England and 
America enjoyed it. He looked at me and smiled, 
no donbt thinking I was a novice in missionary expe- 
rience to put such a question. But he saw I was 
anxious to have a candid answer. Without further 
remark he left the room, and soon returned, leading 
in a young man whom he introduced to me as one of 
their theological students, and quietly observing, 
" You can ask him," he went out again, leaving me 
face to face with the answer to my question. 

Even at home, and amid the coniidences of our pas- 
toral life, it is not always easy for a minister to ascer- 
tain exactly the real condition of the religious life 
and experience of his members. Yet here I was, 
with an utter stranger, and he a Hindu, seeking this 
information. 

But I was committed to the inquiry, and, finding 
that he could speak English, resolved to improve my 
opportunity. My limited time made it necessary 
that I should be prompt ; so, after greeting the young 
man, I drew up two chairs and we were seated. His 
gracious and intelligent appearance impressed me fa- 
vorably. I wished him to feel quite at ease with me, 
told him who I was and where I was going, and then 
said : 

" You are the first converted Hindu I have ever 
seen, and you cannot imagine with what interest I 
look at you. I want you to help me by answering 
me a question or two." 



138 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

He replied tliat he would try to do so. I then said, 

" First, then, will jou tell me how yon were con- 
verted to Christianity ? " 

He was solemnized by the abrupt inquiry, and a 
shade of emotion passed over his countenance, but he 
was soon self-possessed again, and, after a few sec- 
onds, replied : 

" Well, sir, 1 heard the missionaries preach in the 
Bazaar, and was led to read the Bible. I thus found 
out that my ancestral religion was false, and that 
Christianity was true. I embraced it, and was bap- 
tized. I am a communicant, and attend church ; I 
study the Scriptures, and am a Christian." 

Had he stopped here, as I feared he might, and, as I 
afterward learned, hundreds of " converts " do, — per- 
haps because they are not taught better, — I should not 
have been much encouraged by the interview ; but, to 
my delight, he went on to say that he had been led to 
see that he was a sinner — that his heart must be 
changed and his transgressions against God forgiven, 
or his soul would be lost ; and, under this deep sense 
of his need of mercy, he had come as a penitent to 
God ; that he was soon enabled to cast himself by 
faith on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God 
took off from his conscience the heavy load of sin, 
and shed abroad his love in his heart. He then felt 
and knew that he was saved, and had ever since been 
happy. 

How glad I was to hear this simple, clear state- 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 139 

ment — to have this evidence, that our blessed religion 
could be every thing to a Hindu that it was to me. 
I rejoiced with him, and then said : 

" 'Now, that seems all right ; you have given to me 
a reason of the hope that is in you, will you further 
tell me, as you have been introduced to me as a theo- 
logical student, what are your motives for entering 
the Christian ministry ? " 

This was a very close question, but he endured it, 
and modestly replied : 

" Well, sir, the mercy that has saved me can save 
any one else, and I have such sympathy for those 
around me who are now as I once was, that I want 
to lead them to God for mercy, as I was led myself. 
The Lord has laid this upon my heart as a duty, and 
I dare not refuse. I must preach the Gospel." 

I was delighted with his reply, and said : 

" I think any of our Quarterly Conferences in 
America would vote you, on such evidence, a license 
to preach. I thank you for answering my questions ; 
you have done me more good than you can know, and 
have solved any doubt I may have had whether God 
could save your race and call them to his holy minis- 
try as truly and fully as he saves and calls his servants 
elsewhere. I shall never forget you ; you have 
greatly encouraged me for the work on which I am 
entering." 

Bidding him an affectionate farewell, I had to 
hurry away to reach the ship ere she lifted her anchor. 



140 Fkom Boston to Baeeillt. 

During the remaining four days of the voyage on to 
Calcutta I thought constantly of that precious young 
man, and ]3rayed earnestly that God might so guide 
and bless our efforts that I should live to see raised 
up in the mission which I was to found men like him, 
converted to God and having a divine call to the 
work of the ministry — feeling assured that if this 
were done our people at home w^ould never fail in 
sympathy for the work, but would sustain it as long 
as it presented such claims as these to their confidence 
and affection. 

How much need there is in a land like India, or, 
indeed, in any unevangelized land, for caution in these 
important matters, wliere converts so much need " line 
upon line," as to the essential nature of Christianity, 
and where they are so liable to stop short of divine 
grace ; resting content in sacraments and Church 
membership, and the remembrances they have of the 
sacrifices they made in order to become " Christians : " 
and too often trusting in the form without the 
power. What perpetual need there is to reiterate the 
caution, " Ye must be born again ! " The clearest 
teaching and the highest standard are needed here, 
w^here so many influences combine to cloud the sub- 
ject and lead men to rest in " a name to live while they 
are dead." A religion of mere form is all that such 
people ever know, so they have a strong temptation to 
rest satisfied in the purer forms of Christianity, and 
suppose it is all right with them because they have ac- 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 141 

eepted a Christian creed, been baptized, regularly par- 
ticipate in tbe holj communion, and try to live right. 

If tlieir spiritual guide be a man who is not aware 
that the witness of the Holy Spirit is the common 
privilege of Christians, every-where and in all ages, 
he is not likely to urge them to seek it earnestly ; nor 
will he be very emphatic in drawing their attention 
to the definite instruction contained in those passages 
which teach this blessed truth ; such as : ''Because 
ye are sons. Cod hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son 
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." 

Here the witness is essentially connected with the 
sonship of Cod's children ; the testimony of the Spirit 
accompanies his work in the heart — the evidence goes 
with the relationship as surely as feeling and con- 
sciousness go with life. 

On my return, anxious to add another voice to " the 
word of their testimony," as I moved among the con- 
gregations which our brethren have gathered out of 
heathenism into the fellowship of Christianity, I re- 
peatedly exhorted on such texts as, " Have ye received 
the Holy Chost since ye believed?" and was con- 
stantly pleased to find that I was imderstood on this 
subject by our converts as I would be by our congre- 
gations at home. 

They have been well trained in the truth of C^od by 
men who are not troubled by any mental reservation 
as to whether the Lord Jesus, in the same sense and 
with the same intention, died for every one whom 



142 From Boston to Bareilly. 

they address. They fully believe that there is no bar 
in the way of the salvation of any of their hearers in 
any decree of Him whose love for the world led him 
to give his Son to " taste death for every man." 'Nor 
are their expectations of gracious and present results 
at all paralyzed or postponed by any millenarian ex- 
pectations which tend to quiet down such an agony 
of soul for their converts as leads them to " travail 
in birth again till Christ be formed within them," un- 
der the delusive idea that the power and extension 
desired will all appear " when the Lord Jesus himself 
comes " to accomplish it. 

A latent Calvinism or a premillenarian theory is a 
very poor qualification for a missionary w^ho longs to 
see present results of his labor. Ritualism — resting 
short of the great radical change which is conscious 
to all who have experienced it — is equally misleading, 
and leaves little results of spiritual life to show for 
their labor, even when half a century of toil has been 
expended. How much better to trust the Gospel, as 
retaining its entire original energy and grace, and of- 
fer at all times immediate and conscious salvation by 
believing on the Son of God, as did Philip to the 
stranger eunuch, expecting immediate results, and so 
having it done to them " according to their faith." 

Our Methodist missions have, without hesitation, 
dared to stake their hopes of success on such convic- 
tions. Are they justified in this, and what are the 
results after twenty-five years of effort ? 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 143 

Let Tis land, and see for ourselves wliat God has 
wrought by such methods and such faith as theirs, 
and all others who are like-minded. 

On the 8th of October, 1883, w^e ran into the mag- 
nihcent harbor of Bombay, and dropped anchor amid 
a scene of great beauty. It was the morning of the 
holy Sabbath. The air was warm, the water smooth 
as a lake, and before us lay the open "gate of India." 
Bombay is probably the finest city on the Oriental 
hemisphere. The cotton famine during our Civil 
War, when the English government made such stren- 
uous efforts to lead the people of India to give their 
energies to cultivate the plant and supply Lancashire, 
gave Bombay its grandest opportunity. Great fort- 
unes were accumulated during those five years ; and 
its merchants vied with each other in making their 
city worthy of tlie w^ealth that poured in upon it. 
Magnificent parks and public buildings, wide streets, 
and all the modern improvements, were created. No 
city in the East ever attained such an accession to its 
splendor as this one did during that period. 

But their heathen civilization failed w^hen the press- 
ure of prosperity came upon it, and the temptation 
of " making haste to be rich " proved too much for 
a people who had not yet cordially accepted the 
maxim that " honesty is the best policy." 

Instead of being satisfied with such a prosperity as 
then flowed in upon them, and trying to be conscien- 
tious in their efforts to retain it by fair dealing with 



144 Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 

their new customers, tliey began to tamper with their 
bales of cotton to make them weigh heavier, intro- 
ducing sand and even stones. But they quickly 
"killed the goose that laid the golden eggs." The 
mill owners of Lancashire were, ere long, disgusted 
and exasperated to find their delicate machinery in- 
jured by the adulterations ; so, as soon as our war 
ended, and our southern ports were opened, they 
gave up depending on India, and went back to New 
Orleans and Charleston for " honest cotton." 

We had made our run from Liverpool to Bombay, 
a distance of six thousand two hundred miles, in 
twenty-eight days. Just as nine o'clock struck that 
morning, a boat came off with two gentlemen in it 
wearing European costumes, and we were warmly 
welcomed by the presiding elder, Bev. D. O. Fox, 
and one of his members. We were soon transferred 
to the shore, and passed through the customs, and by 
eleven o'clock I was standing in the pulpit of our 
English Church near the Fort, to preach. I was taken 
in the evening, for the same purpose, to our Grant 
Boad Church, and after that to the Bazaar, to the 
service in the Mahratta language, conducted by the 
venerable and saintly George Bowen, and so ended 
a delightful day about eleven o'clock that night. 
Being early in October the heat was very great 
and exhausting, and we had another month of it to 
endure, before the cooler weather of ^November 
would come on. 



Fkom Boston to Bareillt. 145 

This was my first glimpse of the work of the South 
India Conference, which I was afterward to see very 
extensively, when I had gone over the field of the 
North India Conference, my old sphere of labor. 

Letters and a telegram from our brethren were 
here awaiting me, urging us onward to Lucknow, so 
that we might be in time for the Dasserah and Camp- 
meeting, which were about to commence. 

We hurried up our preparations, and on Monday 
evening went to the station to take our departure. 
Here, too, we were struck with surprise on seeing the 
evidences of the changes that had come over India, 
not only since we first landed, in 1856, but, more 
especially, since we left it, only eighteen years ago. 

Then the only way to reach Lucknow from Bom- 
bay, a distance of ten hundred and ten miles, was 
the single seat on the mail cart, or else by palanquin, 
— a litter swung on a pole, and carried by eight men, 
for each person, — wliich would make about three 
miles an hour, the bearers being changed every 
twelve miles, each man receiving four annas (twelve 
cents) and buckshish ; a slow and most expensive 
mode of traveling. The journey would then have 
required eighty-four changes of bearers between Bom- 
bay and Lucknow, and would have cost about one 
hundred and ten dollars for each person carried. 
Every river on the entire route would have had to 
be forded, for there were then no bridges, save occa- 
sionally a rickety bridge of boats, and the time con- 
10 



146 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

sumed on tlie journey would have been (if there were 
no detentions or breakdowns) fully twenty-five days, 
including the Sabbath's rest, " according to the com- 
mandment." The running is done between five 
o'clock in the evening and ten o'clock next forenoon, 
the traveler being obliged to remain under cover 
during the great heat of the day. It was very tire- 
some, especially for ladies. But, in the new con- 
dition of things, we found a first-class railroad ready 
for our use. The carriages were remarkably comfort- 
able, with special appliances for traveling in a hot 
country. 

"We chose the second class, having a large compart- 
ment to ourselves, with sofa seats to rest and sleep 
on. There was blue and green glass in the windows, 
to moderate the glare of tlie sun, and a bath-room 
attached. The whole cost for each individual, from 
Bombay to Lucknow, was only thirty-six rupees, 
about fifteen dollars, the class above being twice that 
sum, and the one below only one half the amount, 
and the distance was run in forty-nine hours. What 
a change for the better in eighteen years was here ! 

The railroad system extends all over India now. 
This line continues east to Calcutta, a distance of 
fourteen hundred and eighty miles from Bombay. 
Then from Calcutta to Peshawar there is a line eight- 
een hundred miles long. Another from Bombay to 
Peshawar, ma Delhi and Lahore, is eighteen hundred 
and fifty-six miles long, and another, which is two 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 147 

thousand three hundred and ninety miles in length, 
from Bombay to Kurrachee by Lahore. These are 
the longest lines in the country. 

When we first entered India there was only one 
short line, seventy-four miles from Calcutta, out to 
Raneegunge, to a coal-field there. For years this 
was all. They were timid about proceeding, as they 
feared in regard to the coal supply ; but, finally, they 
ventured on from Haneegunge to Benares, and 
thence to Delhi, and found coal mines as they pro- 
ceeded. When they reached Delhi a mine was dis- 
covered near Umbala, and on they went to Pesha- 
war. The Maker of this world had planted the coal 
where it would afterward be most required, and 
it was ready to be discovered when the highest 
necessities of India were to be promoted by it. The 
line to Peshawar runs along the outside border of 
our mission field, and now another line has been 
made through its entire length, called the Oude and 
Rohilcund Pail way, from the city of Benares to 
Allyghur. 

JSTo mission is better furnished with facilities for 
intercommunication than this. In twenty-four hours 
our missionaries can come together for their Confer- 
ence, and this at a trifiing expense. Southern India 
is, also, extensively provided with railroads, there 
being lines now from Bombay to Madras, from Ma- 
dras to Bangalore, and on to Beypore. 

The native princes have also caught the inspira- 



148 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

tion, and have built lines in their dominions ; so that 
in the l^izam's territory, in Baroda, the Mysore, 
Scinde, Tirhoot, Kandahar, and many other native 
states, the princes have built their own roads, and 
connected them with the great trunk lines laid down 
by English companies under government guarantees. 

The telegraph has been run every- where. Canals 
and works for irrigation are nearly equal to the de- 
mand for them, and famines are thus being made al- 
most impossible. 

A great system of education, higher and lower, 
aided or supported by government, extends through 
each presidency. A system of the cheapest postage 
known in any nation is available to all, and the 
" money-order " and " parcel's post " systems are now 
added. 

India is already in " The Latin Union " for out- 
side postage ; so that, instead of the '' thirty-eight 
cents," as a letter rate from Boston to Bareilly, and 
ten cents on a newspaper, as it was in 1856, five cents 
now carries that letter, and two cents the paper. 'No 
other heathen nation has such postal facilities as now 
exist in British India. 

The whole of this vast aggregate of good, and 
more that might be mentioned, as hospitals, etc., have 
been conferred upon India by the Christian civiliza- 
tion that now directs her interests. While peace, in- 
telligence, and valuable improvements extend every- 
where. Not a sword can be draw^n by one of their 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 149 

native princes against another, nor a drop of blood 
shed from year to year. The benign oversight of 
English authority forbids it. Of course there are 
many wrongs yet to be righted, and national sins to 
be forsaken (such as the accursed opium traffic), but 
the past and the present are a guarantee that the 
future will be better than this if the same course is 
only patiently and perseveringly pursued, as no doubt 
it will be. 

What nation could have done better for India, in 
view of the circumstances, than England has done ? 
Certainly we Americans are in no condition to " cast 
the first stone" at her for her failings or misdoings, 
while our own sins of rum-selling, Mor monism, polit- 
ical self-seeking, corruption. Sabbath desecration, and 
profanity abound as they now do. I feel constrained 
to add here, that I doubt if there be in any land on 
this earth a civil service of more pure and accom- 
plished men, or public servants who are more above 
suspicion, or whose just administration, on the whole, 
gives greater satisfaction to the millions under their 
rule, than is done by the civil service of Great Britain 
in India : while their generosity and sympathy with 
the work of our missions are princely, and are known 
to every reader of our annual reports for the past 
twenty-five years. 

But here we are in our comfortable compart- 
ment, provided for by our Bombay friends, with a 
well-furnished lunch-basket for our interesting jour- 



160 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

nej. The shades of night fall before the Ghats are 
reached. We cannot see them till we are returning. 
They ascend three thousand feet, and the wonderful 
railroad climbs up round them in a way that sur- 
prises every one who has the opportunity of behold- 
ing them. This elevation is exceeded by the railroad 
which crosses the " Cumbres " in Mexico. But, al- 
though that attains an elevation of over seven thou- 
sand feet, yet the palm of beauty must be conceded, 
in some points, by the Mexican line to these Ghats. 

Early next morning we were running across the 
plains to Khundwa, and evening found us at Jubbul- 
pore. Another good night's rest, and by eight o'clock 
in the morning we ran into the great station at Alla- 
habad {Allah, God, ahad, dwelling or city — the city 
of God), at the junction of the Ganges and the 
Jumna. Here we were hailed by one of the offi- 
cials (a telegram having been sent on by the good 
folks at Bombay), and breakfast was offered. One 
of our kind entertainers delighted us by remarking, 
" This station used to be a scene of constant pro- 
fanity. It was dreadful to listen to the cursing and 
swearing which rolled along this platform from morn- 
ing till night, and this from officials that w^ere half- 
intoxicated. But God, in mercy, sent ' William Tay- 
lor's men ' in here among us ; a great reformation 
followed, and now from Monday morning till Satur- 
day night we seldom hear an oath, or even a loud 
word ; the men are sober, their work is well done, 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 151 

and all is peace and gentleness." What a testimony ! 
I found the chief of the station was a class-leader, 
and nearly all his subordinates, European and Eura- 
sian, were members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. 

After hearty salutations, we are once more on our 
way. One hundred and sixty-four miles still lay be- 
tween us and Lucknow. 

At five P. M. we rolled into the station at Cawn- 
pore, and were then within the bounds of our own 
mission field, the North India Conference. 

The moment we stopped there was handed into 
our compartment a great tray, on which was a cooked 
dinner, smoking hot, that would have well fed half a 
dozen hungry people. Truly our friends were taking 
care of us. What cordiality and kindness they were 
showing. We part from them and are off again, this 
time for the last stretch of the journey. How grand 
the scene appeared as we ran on to the magnificent 
bridge over the Ganges. In my day we had to cross 
this river on a bridge of rickety boats, which the 
floods of July would often sweep away, and then a 
row-boat was the only way across the wide expanse 
of waters, which overflowed the land on either side, 
till the river extended to several miles in breadth, and 
hours were required to cross it, usually in great discom- 
fort on account of the rapid current and tropical rains. 

But now here we are on a bridge that is really 
a grand structure, and in five minutes we have rolled 



162 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

over, and are ready to give our three hearty cheers 
for Christian civilization and its blessings. Every 
important town we fly through now has a Methodist 
preacher and a little body of Christian believers in it, 
with the means of grace, and a school for the educa- 
tion of their children. But the last forty miles are 
passed as we come in sight of the Alum Bagh, in the 
center of which are resting, awaiting the resurrection 
of the just, the mortal remains of the good and brave 
General Havelock. What memories the sight of that 
dome brings back to us. How the dreamy aspect has 
vanished, and the awful facts of the days twenty-six 
years ago stand out again before us in their dread 
reality ! 

Five miles more and we arrive at the station, by 
half past nine o'clock, and are in Lncknow, full of 
gratitude to the divine goodness which has brought 
us so far in safety. 

As soon as the train stopped there was such a 
hearty burst of joyful recognition. There stood, to 
welcome us, the presiding elder. Dr. Johnson, with 
Dr. Waug-h and a number of the brethren. We were 
hurried into carriages, and started for the Mission 
House of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, 
where it was arranged that w^e were to be enter- 
tained. Nothing is said of any reception or further 
demonstration, nor are we expecting any thing of the 
kind. We are tired and sleepy, and are longing for 
quiet and rest. But, to our surprise, before we reach 



Feom Boston^ to Bareilly. 153 

the last turn, where the Mission House comes into 
view, the carriages stop under the shade of the trees, 
and we are asked to alight. What does this mean? 
It was a surprise, prepared bj our loving friends to 
amaze and delight us. When we got out of the car- 
riages we were put in line two and two, arm in arm. 
This looked rather formal, but even then expectation 
of any reception was not awakened. I quietly sub- 
mitted, and that was all. When we were adjusted we 
began to move on through the dense shade till the 
corner was turned, then, lo, all was explained ! Over 
the gate, now full in view, was an arch, and from it 
blazed out in golden letters, fifteen inches deep, the 

glad word, 

"WELCOME!" 

Wliile, lining the avenue, from the gate to the 
house were about three hundred native Christians, 
the men on one side, the women on the other, and as 
soon as we emerged out of the shade, and came into 
the blaze of light, and were seen, there pealed out, in 
their own language, but to the old familiar tune, the 
glad words ; 

" Lo ! subh ki roshni ati, 

Tariki hatti diir; 
Har mtilk aur quara pati, 

Masih ka sachcha nur." 

Which verse, being interpreted, means, — 

"The morning light is breaking, 

The darkness disappears ; 
The sons of earth are waking 

To penitential tears." 



154 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

The effect was overwhelming. "Who were these 
who were thus singing, " Blessed is He that cometh 
in the name of the Lord ! " Some of them were the 
dear orjphan girls whom I had taken up, in their desti- 
tution and misery, twenty-five years before. We 
Eould pick them out, by their gleaming eyes and 
their grateful tears, as they looked once more on 
*' the father and mother of the mission," as they called 
as. How nice and clean and good they all appeared ; 
how glad and happy ! It was about the heaviest test 
of our feelings that we have ever known in life. 
The emotions were overmastering. I felt like one 
dazed as I tried to walk up between that rejoicing, 
loving line of native Christians, with their pastors and 
teachers. There, at the head of the line, on the steps 
of her hospitable home, stood that blessed woman. 
Miss Thoburn, surrounded by her staff of faithful 
helpers. What a welcome, and what a contrast was 
this to our first reception at Lucknow ! I^o com- 
mon words are at all warm enough to describe the 
scene, or to express the emotions of that glad hour, 
while, to write as we really felt, would, to those who 
were not there, seem to be the very extravagance 
of language. 

It was late ere we were able to get away from our 
dear friends to seek rest. That rest did not come 
readily. We realized so fully that we were actually 
back again in Lucknow, and the mind, in its excite- 
ment, went out and called up that wonderful past, 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 155 

till "we were living it all over again, as if it were only 
a few months since we passed through those experi- 
ences. The excitement and joy of the reception of 
that evening contrasted so wonderfully with our first 
experience in that city, twenty-seven years before, 
it is not possible to understand and appreciate the 
present until we recall what that reception was. On 
the 29th of November, 1856, we first entered this city. 
Our note of introduction was to the gentleman then 
in charge of the government, pending the arrival of 
Sir Henry Lawrence, who was coming down from the 
Punjab, to take upon him the heavy responsibility 
of administering the affairs of this great province. 

For a week we were entertained here, in "The 
Eesidency," which, before another year had elapsed, 
was to become so famous throughout the world for its 
wonderful defense, and for its relief by General 
Havelock. Some of those with whom we then associ- 
ated were destined to fall victims in that terrible siege. 
How little they apprehended that such a conflict and 
such sufferings were so soon to come upon them. 

Our entertainer, who made us welcome to the hos- 
pitality of his home, had little sympathy with our 
object, and gave me plainly to understand that he did 
not believe in our success — even went so far as to 
say that we could not detach one of these people 
from their ancestral faith ; that caste, custom, and sen- 
timent were all too strong for us, and intimated that 
it would be the part of prudence to give up the 



156 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

effort, return to Calcutta, and take the first ship that 
would carry us back again to Boston ! He could not 
think it was safe for us to go, when I proposed next 
day to do so, alone and unattended into the bazaar 
(the business part of the city), and so insisted on fur- 
nishing me with one of the government elephants, an 
immense creature with a grand houdah on his back, 
and, added to this, an armed Sepoy on horseback, 
who was to guard me, and be responsible to him for 
my safety. All this was considered essential by this 
high English official, not for my dignity or pleasure, 
but for my safety in that great city, the capital of the 
Sepoy race, and whose people were all armed, and so 
turbulent that a spark would ignite a commotion and 
set them fighting at any hour. My American pass- 
port was here, probably, of more value to me than it 
ever was elsewhere. This gentleman recognized that 
it gave me a claim to his special consideration, so he 
would run no risk of my going unprotected into that 
bazaar, where he feared I might get knocked on the 
head. It would have been awkward had this oc- 
curred, and a paper come six months after from the 
Department of State at Washington, inquiring what 
became of that American Methodist preacher who 
went one day into the Lucknow bazaar, and did not 
come out again. He would, in that case, have had 
hard work to trace me. So I was well protected 
while with him, and he saw me safely depart, no 
doubt with satisfaction. 



Fbom Boston to Bareilly. - 157 

I have never, in any city of India, save in Hydera- 
bad last year, seen such a hostile, ferocious population 
as I that day witnessed in Lucknow. Indeed, in all 
its aspects, Hyderabad last February reminded me of 
what Lucknow was in 1856. To this hour no mis- 
sionary has ever had a home in Hyderabad, or dared 
to preach the Gospel witliin its walls. When we went 
through it last year it was almost in the same condi- 
tions as formerly in Lucknow. We were taken on a 
pair of elephants, under the protection of Colonel 
Campbell, commander of the Eesident's escort, and 
accompanied by an armed guard. The " Resident ■ ' 
is the English embassador at the court of the ^N^izam 
of Hyderabad. This State is not ruled by the 
English. It is one of the " protected " States. 

The fanatical and armed Mohammedans, which go 
swaggering through these bazaars, are a terror to every 
one, even to their own government ; violence and 
murder are of constant occurrence. The ]^izam's 
own life is not safe — he must be carefully guarded, 
and what he eats and drinks have to be scrutinized 
and tested with great care. His prime minister. Sir 
Salar Jung (considered to be the most enlightened 
native statesman that India has produced in our day), 
was hated by this faction for his liberalism, and died 
suddenly — it was feared by poison — only a few weeks 
before we reached Hyderabad. 

So turbulent are these fanatical followers of Mo- 
hammed, that the English government (which keeps 



158 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

tlie peace among them all) is obliged to maintain in 
cantonments, three miles away, twelve thousand 
troops, of whom six thousand are British soldiers, 
and to have the city effectually commanded from 
certain strategic points with artillery, not for its own 
protection, but solely for the peace and welfare of 
this J^izam and his government, in this, the largest 
native State in India. The ISTizam would not be safe 
for a day in his own capital from these furious and 
ignorant ^'lewd fellows of the baser sort," who are 
banded together and infest the city, were this pro- 
tection withdrawn. 

How much this people and their great capital need 
the Gospel of peace ! God grant that, twenty-five 
years hence — nay, long before that time — Methodism 
(which is already in the vicinity, at Secunderabad) 
may have won her way in, and be as peacefully lo- 
cated here, and as great a power for good, as she is 
to-day in Lucknow ! The former, in that case, will 
then be no greater instance of the intervention of 
our wonder-working God than the latter is now, and 
certainly both will be reckoned in the religious his- 
tory of mankind as among the brightest examples of 
the power of providence and grace. 

ISTever shall I forget that day, in 1856, when I first 
saw Lucknow. The houses are flat-roofed, and being 
elevated on the elephant to a level with every thing, 
I there, for the first time, saw heathenism and Mo- 
hammedanism as they really are. 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 159 

I had been reading Bayard Taylor's book, " India, 
China, and Japan ; " and was interested in his descrip- 
tion of Lucknow. He stood on that iron bridge 
across the Goomtee, and looked at the flowery city, 
and wrote, " It was as lovely as the outer court of 
paradise." But what unutterable vileness was reek- 
ing within! Here were men and deeds that were 
characterized by the Holy Spirit, when he grouped 
such together in the fearful words, '^ earthly, sensual, 
devilish : " but which may not be further particular- 
ized. Enough to say, with Shakespeare, 

" Not to be named, my Lord, 
There is no chastity iu words to utter them." 

Here were not merely armed ferocity, raging re- 
ligious intolerance, but, worse than all, humanity 
fallen so low in its rampant and shameless vice, as 
openly to debase itself even unto hell! Truly the 
closing part of the first chapter of Homans might 
have been written of Lucknow as justly as of Rome 
itself. 'No wonder that there is a hell hereafter, or 
that the Sepoy Rebellion was permitted to come and 
sweep from the face of the earth, which they defiled 
by their presence, so many of these vile wretches, 
"who, knowing the judgment of God, that they 
which commit such things are worthy of death, not 
only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do 
them." 

The weary hours of that ride drew at last to a 



160 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

close, and I returned to tlie Residency, discouraged 
in mind and sick at heart. We had, evidently, a fear- 
ful Avork before us in our attempt to evangelize such 
a people as this. The question arose at last, could it 
be done ? or must we yield up our hope, and adopt 
the unbelieving views of our host ? The dejection 
went with me to my couch and banished sleep, till 
my soul was filled with distress that bordered on de- 
spair of accomplishing any thing. 

Here was this guilty and colossal heathenism, that 
we were sent to overthrow, pouring down its fierce 
defiance upon us, and Satan standing at its side, sus- 
taining it with all his policy and power, both evi- 
dently holding us in contempt and scorn. What 
could weak humanity do against such an alliance? 
In a deeper sense than we ever knew came the words 
to our memory : " Not by might, nor by power, but 
by my Spirit, saith the Lord." How self-evident 
was this truth now. How small, how weak and little 
we felt ourselves to be. Every thing that looked 
like self-sufficiency had fled, and a painful sense of 
feebleness had come in their place. 

I understood not, at the time, the process through 
which I was passing. But it was an experience that 
comes, more or less, to every missionary who is 
alone, and especially at the commencement- of his 
enterprise, and may be regarded as the missionary's 
baptism, wdien God fits his messenger by such self- 
renunciation and such absolute trust upon the Lord 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 161 

alone, that the Ahiiighty can use him as his instru- 
ment. When a man has gone down thus low, till he 
can go no deeper, with self-renounced weakness, 
keenly felt, and God only remaining to be trusted 
in, he then looks up, and humbly asks his all-sufficient 
Master and Lord, how he is to carry out his commis- 
sion in view of all this conscious inability ? 

God's hour has then arrived, and there comes down 
from heaven to the help of this poor weak creature, 
what Dr. Judson calls, "the surest things in the 
universe, the promises of God," to make him equal 
through grace to the difficulties of his position. He 
seizes these promises as his own, and begins to rise, 
never to doubt or despond again. They relate to 
himself, as the human instrument of the Lord's 
work ; and to the final victory in w^hich that work is 
to result. To such a man, in such an hour, what an 
inspiration to his soul are the words which meet all 
his own deficiencies, when his Master says, '' I the 
Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying un- 
to thee, Fear not, thou worm Jacob. ... I will 
help thee. . . . Behold, I will make thee a new sharp 
threshing instrument having teeth : thou shalt thresh 
the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make 
the hills as chaff." 

That poor " worm," so weak and breakable, will be 

made strong enough to thresh the mountains ! How 

wonderful, how divine, is such a figure ! Then for 

his blessed work, and its result, comes down into his 
11 



162 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

soul tlie glorious promises, " the earth shall be full of 
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the 
sea." " The idols he shall utterly abolish," and " the 
Lord alone shall be exalted in the earth." 

Blessed baptism ! for he is now " endued with 
power from on high," and need never again doubt 
nor be discouraged. He knows God will sustain him, 
and is assured that he shall see victory over sin and 
hell, and shall yet sing with exultation : " Now thanks 
be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in 
Christ, and maketh manifes't the savor of his knowl- 
edge by us in every place ! " 

I desire to say earnestly to the Church, that she is 
honored by having such men in her service in India 
(as she has also elsewhere, no doubt). It is charac- 
teristic of brave men that they "see their danger, 
and yet face it." These devoted brethren have cer- 
tainly done this, and the triumphs of which I am to 
speak, as I have seen them, is the honor that God has 
put upon their Christian faith and courage, as they 
have toiled for her, and for the divine Master, in 
whose name she sent them forth. 

I have furnished the evidence of the seriousness 
and risk of this service in the apprehension of the 
political official under whose roof we were then 
sheltered, as well as that of Mr. Tucker. But it is 
due to the facts in the case, and to the glory of divine 
truth and grace, that I should add one or two testi- 
monies more from other parties, and let them leave 



Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 163 

tlieir record as part of the early liistorj of the Meth- 
odist Church in India. One of these is furnished by 
Bishop Heber hinaself, the author of the hymn, 

" From Greenland's icy mountains, 
From India's coral strand," 

whose zeal and holy courage were of the highest 
order. 

Many years before we entered this valley he had 
traveled through its entire length, and had been enter- 
tained in this same Residency. But his apprehensions 
of the serious nature of the risk that would have to 
be run in any attempt to introduce Christianity here, 
were awakened as soon as he reached Benares, and 
realized the energy and fanaticism of this race. They 
were repeated when he reached Lucknow, and had 
studied the condition of things there. He writes : 

"The custom of street-preaching, of which the 
Baptist and other dissenting missionaries in Bengal 
are very fond, has never been resorted to by those 
employed by the Church Missionary Society, and 
never shall be as long as I have any influence or 
authority over them. I plainly see it is not neces- 
sary, and I see no less plainly, that, though it may 
be safe among the timid Bengalese, it would be very 
hkely to produce mischief here. All that the mis- 
sionaries do is, to teach schools, to read prayers, and 
preach in their churcheS; and to visit the houses of 
such persons as wish for information on religious 
subjects." 



164 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

At Lucknow lie added : " It would not be ex- 
pedient at present to send a missionary here ; but 
they might have a school-master, furnished by our 
society, with a stock of sermons to be read every 
Sunday." * 

Even he felt the overawing influence of this colossal 
and fierce resistance to Christianity, while the pro- 
vision for his own safety, " an escort of fifty armed 
men," requiring "three elephants and twenty-two 
camels for their baggage and tents," shows what was 
then the situation, and the dangers to be anticipated. 

But, on the Bishop's plan of doing missionary 
work, the result would have been very small at the 
end of twenty-five years. These people will not 
enter a Christian place of worship until they become 
interested in Christianity. There is no other way to 
reach them, but to go into the streets and market- 
places, and there address them. Of course, they who 
first undertake to do this accept the risks involved. 
But the Bishop thought these risks too great, and in- 
terposed his authority to prevent his own missionaries 
from assuming them. Yet, what would he have said 
had he then been told tliat, finding such methods 
were necessary to their success, even they would dis- 
card his counsel, and would yet imitate the practice of 
" the dissenting missionaries," and that, too, not only 
" amono^ the timid Beno^alese," in and around Cal- 
cutta, but also elsewhere. Or, what would he have 

* Journal, vol. i, pp. 299, 406. 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 165 

thought, if told that missionaries of a Church of 
which, probably, he had never heard, would ere long 
come here, where his words were written, who would 
have the courage, as Mr. Atherton said, " to face the 
devil in his den," and, clad in heaven's own panoplj, 
" be able to stand against all his wiles ; " having to 
wrestle, not only with flesh and blood — misguided and 
ignorant Sepoys — but with foes infernal, who inspired 
and directed their rapine and rage, as they fought to 
close the gates of this city and this country against 
the Redeemer of mankind and his missionary ministry ! 
Well we knew that we have had to wrestle against 
more than visible and mortal foes, even " against 
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of 
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked- 
ness in high places." 

How would the Bishop's amazement have cul- 
minated, had it been added, that, within ten years of 
the time when the 

" Rude alarm of raging foes," 

whose head-quarters would be around this very 
Residency, another Bishop, when that Residency had 
become a ruin, and a perpetual memorial of Chris- 
tian victory, would sit calmly, almost under its 
shadow, organizing those missionaries into an Annual 
Conference, and that some of the twenty-seven 
native helpers whom he appointed to labor with 
them, would have flowing in their veins the blood of 
that Sepoy race ! 



166 Feom Boston to Bareillt. 

During the years when I have gone round my 
wide district in that land, alone in my palanquin, 
or slept, as I have done, in a caravanserai, with none 
but natives around me, and no white man within 
thirty or forty miles, often have I reflected gratefully 
on the wonderful change that God had wrought in 
Oude since Bishop Heber passed through it and 
wrote these words. 

Nor was the powerful and experienced governor, or 
the lordly and gifted ecclesiastic, alone in their solici- 
tude as to the turbulent character of the race north 
of the Ganges. Believing that the proper way to 
win that valley for our divine Master was to occupy 
it at once and strongly^ especially when Christian 
civilization had shown itself to be invincible, and the 
apprehension had gone down deep into the native 
mind that the spread of our holy religion was inevi- 
table, I had proposed to some noble-hearted Christian 
men, in the civil and military services, that if they 
would stand by me and help liberally to provide 
houses for them, I would ask for twenty-four mis- 
sionaries, and occupy with them all the leading cities 
of the valley, so that Christianity might rise right 
up with the new state of things that had been in- 
augurated. Their valor had, under God, opened for 
Christianity a grander opportunity than it had ever 
before seen there. It was their victories that whipped 
the fierce conceit out of those subdued millions, who, 
in their ignorance, had undertaken to annihilate the 



From Boston to Bareillt. 167 

last remnant of Cliristianitj from their country. 
God had used these brave men to fulfill his promise 
to us, that every impediment in the way of our work, 
visible and invisible, should be removed : "I will go 
before thee, and make the crooked places straight : I 
will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in 
sunder the bars of iron." 

Tlie pious men among them sympathized heartily 
with the work which we had now to undertake, and 
for the fulfillment of which their sufferings and victo- 
ries had opened the way. So they subscribed thou- 
sands of rupees to aid my proposition. Our Mis- 
sionary Board accepted the generous aid, and prom- 
ised to supply the missionaries. I drew up a circular 
and appeal, and waited on Greneral Sir James Ou- 
tram, then head of the government of Oude, in suc- 
cession to Sir Henry Lawrence, who had been killed 
during the siege of the Residency. 

I shall long remember the surprise and exclama- 
tion of the brave officer, as he finished reading the 
circular and looked at me. He was in his office, and 
surrounded by some of his staff. Handing the paper 
back, he exclaimed : 

" JN^ow, sir, do you want to provoke a second Sepoy 
rebellion ? " 

" 'No, Sir James, I do not," was my reply. 

" Well, sir, this looks very like it ; why, it is an in- 
vasion ! Twenty-four missionaries ! " Then warm- 
ing up more, he asked, " Have you no discretion ? If 



168 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

tliLS thing is to be done, can't you do it with some 
policy ? Why not quietly introduce them, one here 
and another there, and not alarm the kingdom with 
your twenty-four all at once ? " On he rattled in the 
same strain, and at length brought up with the decla- 
ration, "1^0, sir, I wont give a rupee to help your 
proposal. It's dangerous, sir ; it's dangerous ! " 

It was all in vain to remind him that they had to be 
distributed over a wide area, from forty to fifty miles 
asunder, and that God, whose Gospel of peace they 
were to preach, would take care that their presence 
and labor, so far from proving a danger to British 
rule, would become the source of great strength and 
blessing to it, as is already the case. 'No ; he was 
too much excited to see it in that light. He was 
alarmed, and would give neither aid nor sympathy to 
our project ! 

Now, here was one of " the bravest of the brave " 
' — the man who acted so magnanimously toward 
Havelock, and who led the cavalry so grandly on the 
day of the mighty struggle of that little host with 
the whole army of Oude, crossing the Goomtee, and 
taking the Sepoy host on the flank, and so completing 
the wonderful victory ; yet he shrunk back w^hen 
asked to help a little body of Christian missionaries 
w^ho were claiming those heathen as the inheritance of 
the Son of God. Not all the rewards and decorations 
of earth could have induced him to consent to lead 
these " soldiers of Christ " on to the contest with " the 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 169 

rulers of the darkness of this world." The brave 
man, so worthily designated bj his contemporaries 
" The Bayard of India," sleeps to-day in Westminster 
Abbey, the mausoleum of England's illustrious dead ; 
but he did not possess that celestial courage, con- 
ferred with their commission, by " the Captain of 
our salvation," upon his "called and faithful and 
chosen " servants, who would dare " stand up for 
Jesus " in that Lucknow bazaar, and enter upon that 
struggle for evangelical victory which the bishop and 
the general both regarded as so full of peril ! 

Ah ! many a missionary has won, and will wear 
forever, a decoration of honor and triumph, in com- 
parison of which '* The Yictoria Cross " and " The 
Star of India " are not worthy to be compared. 

Occasionally one meets at home some people who 
desire to be regarded as wise men in missionary mat- 
ters, and consider themselves capable of criticising the 
devotion of their brethren in the Held, even to the ex- 
tent of depreciation. One of these said, some time ago, 
that " the heroic element was not very prominent in 
our modern missions." How little such people know 
what they are saying when they talk thus, and how 
differently they would expect to be spoken of if they 
themselves had stood this test, and these gratuitous 
remarks were made concerning them and their sacri- 
fices and labors. If there are ministers on earth 
regarding whom our divine Master utters the cau- 
tion, " Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets 



170 From Boston to Baeeillt. 

no harm," it is such men as these humble, modest 
missionaries, whose devotion and holy courage " the 
apostles, elders, and brethren at Jerusalem " would 
have gladly commended and honored, as "men who 
have hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord 
Jesus." Such men can afford to be modest and 
patient. Their work, so quietly and courageously 
and well done, is their ample defense. Their Master 
will take good care that their faithful service shall 
have full honor and reward " in that day." 

I know now what many of them have passed 
through, and how long and patiently they have borne 
" the burden and heat of the day," doing their work 
free from ambition or self-seeking, only intent on 
winning souls for Christ, and desiring no human ap- 
plause, but of whom, nevertheless, it may honestly be 
said: 

" Their album is tlie heathen breast, 
Where darkness broods and demons rest, 

Without a ray of light ; 
To write the name of Jesus there, 
And point to worlds both bright and fair, 

Is their supreme delight." 

But here we are at Lucknow again, at the close 
of a quarter of a century since that interview with 
Sir James; and we are here to contemplate the 
results of the effort which he declined to aid, from 
apprehension of its dangers. Meanwhile our mis- 
sionaries have toiled patiently, with faith in God. 
They have said but little of their trials, lest they 



Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 171 

should be misunderstood, and have spoken modestly 
of their success, lest they should seem to boast. In- 
deed, some of them were not fully conscious of how 
high the tide had risen around them till I pointed 
out the water-marks of other days ; so that I had the 
satisfaction of encouraging them by the comparisons 
I was able to make for them, not only as to the com- 
mencement, but even as to the state of the work 
eighteen years ago, when I left India, compared with 
its advanced condition as I found it now. It was a 
privilege to be able thus to " strengthen their hands 
in God." 



172 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 



CHAPTER Y. 

" So did I speak, because my heart was sore, 
Musing, India, on thy sins and pains, 
What time I stood on these outstretching plains, 

"Where messenger of peace ne'er stood before. 

A generation since has passed, and more , 

Not now that horror of great darkness reigns ; 
The starless night of desolation wanes, 

And their fresh songs the birds of morning pour. 

Glory to God, in earth and highest heaven ! 

See countless souls, in throes of a new birth ! 

Soon shall heaven's joy that ancient sorrow chase. 

And loving much, because so much forgiven, 

Shall India, trumpet-tongued, proclaim to eaith 
The unsummed riches of redeeming grace. " 

— Dr. M. Mitchell. 

The morning after our arrival in Lucknow (in 
1883) we went early to attend service in onr English 
church, a beautiful and commodious place of wor- 
shij^. A congregation of over three hundred was 
present. This congregation sustains its own pastor, 
and meets its expenses, and also aids in the work 
among the natives. The same may be said of our 
other English churches in E"ynee Tal and Cawnpore, 
and, in part, of those at Seetapore, S hah jehan pore, 
Bareilly, Moradabad, and Chandausi. All the rest of 
our congregations in that Conference, about one hun- 
dred and fifty in number, are entirely native work. 



From Bostoit to Bareilly. 173 

The life and power of godliness are well sustained 
in their English charges, and the " Desarah " meet- 
ings are services held annually during the " Doorga- 
pooja" vacation, for the revival of the work of God. 
The Oude District Conference is held at the same 
time ; and this is immediately followed by the native 
camp-meeting. Here, of course, our principal interest 
was concentrated. 

To us it was a real surprise to see the preparations 
for the camp-meeting, made in one of the large cen- 
ters of the city, under the trees through which we 
came the night before. Expressing our astonishment, 
we were informed that sanction was granted by the 
municipal authorities. 

The English government has of late been wisely 
extending liberal institutions to the towns and cities, 
giving them considerable self-government, under the 
forms of municipal corporations. The effect is good 
and is not abused. To our surprise, here was this 
body of native gentlemen, who have become so con- 
ciliated toward Christianity, that they extend to us all 
of liberty of action which we could desire in our work, 
and were kind enough even to loan some of the tents 
that were required for the occasion. 

And this is Lucknow ! and these are the people 
who resisted Havelock, and aimed to destroy every 
thing Christian and English from their city and the 
country at large, in 1857 ! The camp-meeting was 
held under the trees in that center, where half a 



174 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

dozen roads meet, without the slightest disturbance, 
and in such peace that we had not, and did not re- 
quire, a single policeman for our protection. I will 
describe one of those meetings. 

The congregation consisted of more than four hun- 
dred native Christians inside the tent, sitting down, 
native fashion, on the carpet, which covered the whole 
space. Around these stood, under the " kanats," or 
wings of the tent, thrown up to give them shade — an- 
other congregation of heathens and Mohammedans, 
who looked on and listened with surprise to all that 
was said and done there. The praying seemed par- 
ticularly to impress them. They looked, but saw no 
shrine, no idol or symbol of a deity — on the contrary, 
our prayers were directed upward, " to the hills from 
whence cometh " our " help," because our God v/as in 
the heavens. What a lesson they had of the spir- 
ituality of the Deity ! They seemed as if they should 
not forget it. Bight hearty was the singing, and the 
prayers fervent. 

After the sermon Dr. Johnson, the presiding 
elder, exhorted, and invited penitents forward for 
prayers. Several came, and kneeled down on either 
side of the stand, the men on the right hand side and 
the women on the left (the sexes sit apart in India), 
and, what showed the good training they had received 
was, that with each penitent there would come forward 
one or two of the church members, the men with the 
men and the women with the women. They would 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 1Y5 

kneel with them, and aid them all they could in seek- 
ing mercy. The whole assembly bowed down, and 
joined in the effort. To me it was a wonderful hour. 
Seldom have I witnessed more fervent pleading with 
God. The earnestness suggested to my mind the 
words, " There was a great cry," yes, " strong crying 
and tears to Him who was able to save." N^o confu- 
sion, nothing to criticise, all engaged imploring mercy 
for these poor souls. 

But still the heathen looked on, some of them as 
if awe-struck with the wonderful scene. And this 
was in Lucknow! That fact kept constantly recur- 
ring to my mind. I reflected, what would Havelock 
have thought, or Bishop Heber, or Sir James Outram 
have said, had this scene been foretold them ! 

Yet here it was, not in imagination or hope, but in 
all its glorious reality, the sons and daughters of the 
Sepoy race holding camp-meeting in the center of 
the Sepoy capital ! God had, indeed, " chosen the 
weak tilings of the world to confound the things 
which are mighty, . . . that no flesh should glory in 
his presence." Here, too, unto these people, once and 
for so long without a ray of Gospel light, Christ Jesus 
was of God made unto them " wisdom, and righteous- 
ness, and sanctification, and redemption." Hallelu- 
jah ! "We glory in the Lord. 

As the pleading with God closed, Dr. Johnson en- 
couraged those who had come forward to acknowledge 
what the Lord had done for their souls. Thirteen of 



176 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

tliem did so, and truly " confessed Christ before men," 
then and there. We rejoiced with them, as, no 
doubt, did the angels of God, which were hovering 
over us. 

During the meeting there were some converts 
ba^Dtized. It was pleasant to witness their zeal and 
earnestness. One of the party was old, and finding 
some of the candidates taking the vows in a feeble 
voice, he called out to them, " Speak up ! " 

Beceiving the ordinance, they laid their right hand 
on their breast, and bent the head forward. It 
looked so devout, and for them the holy rite meant 
so much more than it usually does with us. 

The Sabbath was "one of the days of the Son of 
man." From seven o'clock in the morning till half 
past ten at night, service after service, at brief inter- 
vals, had filled up the golden hours. The love-feast in 
the morning was glorious. Never before had I seen 
so many native Christians together, or heard so many 
of them testify for the Lord Jesus. 

The women were as ready as the men. And the 
burden of testimony was, salvation in Christ, and how 
they loved their Saviour. One venerable man, who 
had tried Hindu rites thoroughly, gave his simple 
experience in this fashion : " Brahma, Yishnu, and 
Shiva did nothing for me ; Satan was still in my heart 
till I saw Jesus." 

Surely this is the true Gospel, deliverance of the 
soul and life from sin and the power of Satan, by the 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 177 

grace of the Lord Jesus Clirist, received and confessed. 
Even the external aspect of the occasion was hon- 
orable to Christianity. For every one of them, the 
poorest as well as those better off, had made the most 
of their circumstances in the way of cleanliness and 
tidy clothing. There was a brightness and pure as- 
pect over the scene, which intimated their conviction 
that '^ cleanliness is next to godliness." The women 
and their daughters looked nice, and their dark eyes 
gleamed with intelligence and goodness. On each 
lap lay the Bible and hymn-book, ready to follow 
the minister in the service. 

In all India, heathenism could not furnish, from the 
same class of persons, such a scene as this, even apart 
from its piety ; Christianity alone can create it : 
and the tendency is all the time upward, as the senti- 
ments born of intelHgence and self respect develop 
themselves. Their bodies, their clothing, and their 
homes intimate their Christianity. 

Slowly, but surely, they are rising as a class, not- 
withstanding the persecution and poverty through 
which they have straggled up to their present stand- 
ing. Even the enemies of their religion are beginning 
to respect them, and to recognize the fact that Chris- 
tianity does elevate its disciples. I could clearly see, 
by contrasting with the past, the change and improve- 
ment in both respects, and rejoiced to see them. But, 
precious above all, was the religious advance that I 

readily recognized. Here was the grandest improve- 
12 



178 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

ment. 'No longer leaning heavily on us for every 
item of instruction and spiritual help, and yielding 
little in return of stimulus to our faith and religious 
feelings, I found many of them now able to stand 
alone, in full and conscious conviction of the help of 
the indwelling Comforter, and drawing their confi- 
dence and strength from His grace and guidance, 
rather than from our humble and reiterated instruc- 
tions, as in the days gone by. More of God and less 
of man, in their experience ; and yet, with a higher 
appreciation than they had before, of all the good 
that we can do them by our instruction and example. 

Their faith, their experience, and their power in 
prayer have begun to be a real benefit to the mission- 
aries, and a help in carrying on the work of God. 
No longer having to take them by the hand, to assist 
them over every little difficulty, they can now " run 
and not be weary." They can be more relied upon, 
and are quietly advancing in every element of power. 

This fact was pleasingly illustrated in this very 
service. The presiding elder, anxious to have more 
divine unction in the meeting, rose and exhorted 
them to seek a richer baptism of the Holy Spirit, and 
proposed that we prostrate ourselves before God and 
seek it. He selected the person whom he thought 
would best lead the audience to the throne of grace, 
and quietly said, " Will Sister Caroline please pray ? " 
and "Sister Caroline" did pray. How evident it was 
that she knew how — that she had "power with God" 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 179 

— ^that lier faith could claim the blessing: and brino: it 
down upon that bowed assembly. There was more 
in that pleading than a rich, full voice ; there was an 
unction in those simple earnest words of that sister, 
as she talked with God, and implored him to grant 
us that baptism for which we waited before him. 
The tone of the service rose, and was sustained to 
the close, by the blessing w^iich came down in answer 
to the prayer of that native Christian woman. 

As the meeting drew to a close, the elder rose, 
and said, "^ow, I want all of you who enjoy the 
witness of the Holy Spirit, and consider yourselves 
consecrated to Christ forever, to rise to your feet in 
evidence of it." My heart bounded, and I earnestly 
looked to see what response would be given to such a 
proposal as that. They rose in all parts of the tent, 
so many that I was surprised and delighted. Some 
of them were about to sit down, when the elder said, 
" Please don't sit down ; remain standing a few mo- 
ments while I ascertain the extent of this testimony, 
and until Brother Butler can see what God has 
wrought." They stood, and he counted rapidly. 
Then turning to me, his face radiant, he said, "There, 
Brother Butler, there are standing" before you now 
more than three hundred souls that God has saved ! " 

I shall never forget the joy of that moment, or the 
adoring gratitude I felt to Him whose high work of 
redemption was there displayed before us, with all 
the future which that scene intimated for Oude and 



180 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

for India, as well as the past, which it so contrasted ! 
How fitting to the hour and the facts were the words 
that rushed to our memory : " Great and marvelous 
are thy woi;ks, Lord God Almighty; just and true 
are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not 
fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name ? for thou 
only art holy : for all nations shall come and wor- 
ship before thee ; for thy judgments are made mani- 
fest." 

And this was in Lucknow^ where a few years ago 
our divine Saviour had been so fiercely blasphemed, 
his claims defied, his religion trampled under foot, 
and his followers slain with the sword ! The locality 
and its antecedents made the grace seem more won- 
derful than it could be elsewhere. 

The sacramental service in the church was worthy 
of the time and place, l^o caste there. How Chris- 
tian it looked to see all these varieties of color and 
race and class kneeling round that altar. The Amer- 
ican, the English, the Sikh, the Rohilla, the Eurasian, 
along with the varieties of caste from the Brahmin 
to the Pariah, " all one in Christ Jesus," all sharing 
in those elements, " the communion of the body and 
blood of Christ." 

The central figures at one table were the Rajah 
Hernan Singh and his lady. In distributing to them 
the elements, and remembering who he was, I saw an 
additional evidence of the power of our mighty Sav- 
iour. The Rajah is brother of the reigning Rajah of 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 181 

Kupurtliiilla, wliose father, for loyalty to the English 
government during the Sepoy Bebellion, received 
certain estates of defeated rebels in Oude. This 
brother manages these estates, and is reckoned among 
the nobility, or talookdars, of Oude. These India 
barons are numerous, and were granted by the En- 
glish government some special immunities. They 
are a powerful body of men, and occasionally meet 
together at Lucknow for consultation in regard to 
their interests, which they can thus represent to the 
paramount power. 

This Rajah, in view of his higher education and his 
knowledge of both languages, they elected as their 
secretary and medium of intercourse with the su- 
preme government, notwithstanding he is a Christian ; 
which, in itself, is a pleasing evidence of the tolerance 
of mind to which the talookdars of Oude have come. 
Plis lady is worthy of him, a noble, educated woman, 
the daughter of a native Christian minister. 

Our mission is even already touching every class 
and condition of society, " from the least unto the 
greatest;" though our success is chiefly among the 
poor, as has been the case in the early history of all 
missions in heathen lands, as well as under our Sav- 
iour's own ministry, who rejoiced that " to the poor 
the Gospel was preached." But we look for the 
time when the highest will bend with the humblest 
at the feet of Him who is '' Prince of the kinpfs of 
the earth," and yet who delights to lift the lowliest 



182 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

of those who love him to rank with dignities that 
shall be " eternal in the heavens." 

The last event of that glorious Sabbath will illus- 
trate this point, showing how the very humblest of 
all can be exalted to honor and joy that the highest, 
w^ho refuse Christ, know not and cannot appreciate. 

The benediction had been pronounced, and we 
were leaving the tent, when Rev. S. Knowles came 
up to me and said, " Brother Butler, would you not 
like to hear our Jungle Methodists sing ? " It 
sounded so queer. " Jungle " means wild, unculti- 
vated. It was a curious adjective to apply to Meth- 
odists. I had seen about all the kinds there are of 
these people throughout the world, but here in India 
was something new, " Jungle Methodists! " Of course, 
I could guess what the good brother meant, but the 
way it was put provoked a broad smile, and yet there 
was gladness in the heart from the fact intimated, 
that the lonely dwellers in the Terai had already 
learned to 

" Join in the glad redemption song." 

Yes, indeed, late tliough it was, we did want to hear 
tliese Jungle Methodists sing. But a few words of 
explanation are necessary here. 

My readers may have seen some account of the 
good work done by this faithful missionary, the Bev. 
S. Knowles. This brother labors close up to the 
Terai forest, which lies along the base of the Hima- 
laya Mountains. Between the cultivated plains and 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 183 

the foot of the hills is a space of about thirty miles, 
almost entirely destitute of human habitations. It is 
called the " Terai," and is a jungle — that forms a 
paradise for thousands of elephants, tigers, leopards, 
wolves, and other wild animals. During the day- 
light these creatures lie up in their dens, and the 
herdsmen of the villages on the outside venture to 
take in their cattle to graze. But, as soon as the 
evening sun declines, they must leave ; for then that 
stirring scene, so graphically described in the one 
hundred and fourth Psalm, takes place : '' Thou mak- 
est darkness, and it is night : wherein all the beasts of 
the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar 
after their prey, and seek their meat from God." 
Often have I heard this roaring, as I have gone 
through that Terai by night, on my way to Nynee Tal. 
Bat no one dare venture to pass through, or remain 
there, except under the protection of a torch. With 
that you are safe, though in the midst of it and alone. 
I presume that even a child, had he only sense enough 
to hold up his lantern, might walk through it and be 
safe. They would " roar," but would not come near 
nor touch him. Such is the security of light. The 
fact may well be an illustration of a higher protec- 
tion from a fiercer foe, " the roaring lion, who walk- 
eth about seeking whom he may devour," can seize 
the human soul only in the darkness which that soul 
wilfully prefers. " But the sober and vigilant " are 
in the care of the good Shepherd ; '' not walking in 



184 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

darkness, they liave the light of life," and are safe, 
were a thousand devils prowling round them. Their 
light protects them. 

The British government realizes most of its reve- 
nue in India by taxation on the cultivated land, 
which is tilled under a settlement, made every thirty 
years with the agricultural population. 

Inside of the Terai there are open spaces, unincum- 
bered by trees, where the soil is rich, and here the 
government allows people who are landless to go in, 
burn off the grass, and break up and cultivate the 
soil, without requiring taxation from them. 

These people, of course, assume the risk, and have 
to provide for their own protection. Not for one 
hour after sunset could they or their cattle be safe 
without this provision of light. One of their number 
lias to be watchman, but his vigilance, in faithfully 
keeping a fire burning, is ample and his fellow-vil- 
lagers sleep in security and peace. Our mission ex- 
tends its ministry over some of these Terai cultivators, 
and so Christianity dwells with them in their jungle 
home, and is all to them that it can be to those who rest 
amid the luxury and safety of our highest civilization. 

It is a historical fact that Christianity is the only 
religion on earth that inspires people to sing', as a 
part of divine worship, and she provides ample means 
for the exercise of the privilege. This truth is in- 
tensified in proportion as those Avho sing are evan- 
gelical and holy. Such appreciate that "service of 



From Boston to Bakeillt. 185 

song," for wliicli tlie Lord calls wlien he says, " Let 
the people praise thee, O God ; yea, let all the people 
praise thee." We see the provision which evangel- 
ical Christianity makes for this delightful duty in the 
immense variety and number of the hymn and tune 
books w^hich she furnishes for her adherents. Mo- 
hammedanism has no hymnal, nor has Hinduism, 
nor Buddhism. 'No glorious outburst of sacred song 
from the hearts and lips of these people ever awoke 
the echoes cff any heathen or Mohammedan temple, 
and never will till those temples become the churches 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Why should they sing ? Singing is the language 
of gratitude and joy, and the natural and sponta- 
neous expression of exultant life. Redemption and 
song stand related as cause and effect; the appro- 
priate language of salvation is singing. When God 
transforms a mourning sinner into " a new creature " 
in Christ, and sets his feet upon the rock, and estab- 
lishes his goings, he finishes his work of grace by 
'' putting a new song into his mouth, even praise unto 
our God," and authorizes him to sing all the way to 
tlie heavenly Zion, where he is to sing forever. 

Taking up a concordance, I find (without enumer- 
ating with accuracy) that so important is this joyful 
duty in the estimation of our redeeming God, as a 
part of the devotion which we owe him, and which 
was designed to furnish such help to express our 
adoration and joy, that the words, " sing," " singing," 



186 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

" song," and " praise," are used in the liolj Script- 
ures about three hundred and twenty -six times. 
Instruments to aid us in singing these praises are 
commended, and the examples of saints and angels in 
heaven are given to encourage us to exercise ourselves 
in this holy service, so helpful to genuine piety. 

ISTo wonder, then, that the true people of God are 
so fond of the privilege, and that not merely amid 
its most elaborate manifestations, where — 

" Through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, 
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise ; " 

but also, and often more sincerely, in the humblest 
places where he records his name ; so that in high- 
land glens, in catacombs, in deep forests, in ^' the 
inner prison," and even at the stake, God's redeemed 
servants have ever loved to "sing unto the Lord," 
and heartily rejoice " in the rock of their salvation." 

So, these humble dwellers in the Oude Terai are 
in this "true succession." They sing and love to 
sing, and also desire whatever help is possible to 
them, that they may do it "lustily and with good 
courage." Harps and cornets and organs they had 
never heard, and could not afford, but they saw that 
they could consecrate to holy purposes the simple 
expedient used by their heathen neighbors for secular 
and idolatrous festivities ; and thus the humblest of 
all the instruments which helps the praise of God's 
people anywhere, has become their assistant in such 
glad service. 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 187 

A ghara — a vessel of earth baked in the sun — is 
taken, the bottom carefully cur out, and a piece of 
prepared skin is laid over and tightened up. The left 
arm is introduced, and the instrument (which did not 
cost ten cents) is played by the right hand, and the 
sacred song is started and sustained according to the 
ability and enthusiasm of the leader. 

Here was the scene which Brother Knowles invited 
me to witness at the close of that delightful Sabbath. 
It had been a day of high privileges from seven in 
the morning till after ten o'clock at night, and these 
" Jungle Methodists " had enjoyed the holy festiv- 
ities as much as any one else. But, even after that 
" feast of fat things, and wine on the lees well re- 
lined," they wanted to have a finish up and consum- 
mation of the whole in the method so dear to them- 
selves. 

We found them sitting in a circle on the ground, 
the leader with the ghara in the center, and they sus- 
taining him with an earnestness and delight that it 
was a privilege to witness. Ko careless one in that 
happy group. Every soul seemed intent, and sang as 
if they were resolved to get out of the song and the 
instrument all the jubilation it was possible to obtain 
from them. 

The song was a hhajan, with verses having two 
lines each, and a chorus to them. It was all about 

" The precious blood, 

That cleanseth from all sin." 



188 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

Deep sympathy with the fervent and holy song 
seemed to absorb all their attention, and their bod- 
ies swayed to and fro as they sung so rapturously. 
After listening a long time we left them singing, and 
I believe they continued till near midnight. 

Some one has written that 

" Music liath charms to soothe the savage breast, 
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak." 

I have never beheld rocks and oaks so miraculously 
affected, but have seen here "greater things than 
these." Heathen breasts not only "soothed," but en- 
raptured ; heathen hearts not only " softened," but 
renewed; and rugged wills and lives not only 
" bent," but sweetly pliant to the rectitude of a holy 
life, all to the praise and glory of God. 

Modern miracles truly, wrought on the bodies and 
souls of some, even of the lowliest of mankind. 

The proud deluded worldlings, who give their gold 
for the opportunity of listening to the godless strains 
of the theater and opera, — sung often by libertines 
and women of clouded reputation, — would, perhaps, 
have no smile to bestow upon this simple music of 
the soul. But they are incapable of understanding 
or appreciating either its source or its object. IS^ev- 
ertheless, it is true that, to such strains as these, de- 
lighted angels would stoop to listen, while disgusted 
devils, unable to endure the theme that so enraptured 
them, would hasten to flee away ! Their sanctifying 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 189 

song is not the felicity of an hour, nor does it last, 
like the pleasures of sin, only "for a season." It 
" springs up into everlasting life ; " they are singing 
now, and ere long will join the music of the skies, 
and be entitled to listen enraptured to 

"Tlie first archangel as be sings," 

and then claim their share in the mighty chorus of 
the saved and unfallen Church of the Crucified. 

They were a happy circle, those " Jungle Method- 
ists," and forcibly reminded us of the divine predic- 
tion, which was here literally fulfilled, that " they 
that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him." 

The work of the Woman's Foreign Missionary 
Society in Lucknow, under the efiicient superintend- 
ency of Miss Thoburn, was to us a wonder and a 
joy. What could more fully indicate the amazing 
changes that God has accomplished here than the 
presence and successful labors of this devoted band 
of Christian women ? Further on, when I shall have 
seen more of this precious form of missionary service, 
I will speak in detail regarding it, and shall then also 
have more opportunity, as there will not be so much 
to be described as there is in Lucknow, in view of 
the extent and variety of our agency in this great 
city. 

Miss Blackmar's peculiar work, in her " Home for 
Homeless Women," is one of heaven's richest chari- 
ties. Divine providence has placed in her hands 



190 From Boston to Bareilly. 

premises near our cliurcli, and these grateful women, 
rescued and saved by Christian sympathy, are doing 
all they can by their labor, according to their ability, 
to support themselves, so that, with some help, given 
by Christian friends in Lucknow, the wants of the 
institution are all met. 

It was our great privilege to be in time to attend 
the dedication of our Centennial High School, and 
witness the annual distribution of prizes. 

For many years this school had been desired and 
prayed for by our mission. Its existence was a neces- 
sity resulting from our success. With thirteen thou- 
sand children in our day schools, receiving a Christian 
education, and with a native ministry to train, this 
school became of supreme importance to the standing 
and extension of our great work in India. 

It was opened in February, 1877, with forty stu- 
dents, and, notwithstanding the inconvenience of the 
rented building in which it was held, until proper 
premises could be procured, the attendance has risen 
regularly year by year, until three hundred and fifty 
students are now enrolled upon its books. 

God answered the prayer of our brethren, and at 
last a suitable site was obtained, and funds for the 
erection of a good building were contributed — a fine 
campus of six acres, on an elevation close to the Resi- 
dency^ was donated by the native municipality, and 
they added a grant of four thousand rupees for the 
erection of the tower and clock. 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 191 

A suitable building, with cliapel and twelve reci- 
tation-rooms, had been completed, and were to be 
dedicated on this occasion. It may interest my readers 
to look at the programme, so I insert it here. 

CENTENNIAL HIGH SCHOOL. 



DISTEIBUTION OF PEIZES. 

Lucknow, Dec. 1, 1883. 

CHAIR TO BE TAKEN BY J. QUINN, ESQ., C. S., 

COMMISSIONER OF LUCKNOW. 

Anthem A7'ouse Thee ! 

(Christianity's Call to India.) 

PRAYER BY REV. DR. JOHNSON. 

Urdu Poem. .Praise of the New School Building^ and Welcome to 

Dr. Butler. 
Shunker Dayal Farhat. 

English Essay Education. 

Isaac Angelo. 
Song Keep to the Right, Boys ! 

Sanskrit Poem The Mystery of Life. 

Probodh Chunder Roy. 

Arabic Essay Morality. 

Saiyad Mahammed Ghulam Jabbar. 

Bengali Voms.. .. .India's Welcome to the DuJce and Duchess of 

Connaught. 
Dinonath Chuckerbutty. 

Native Bhajan Mubarahhadi e Jalsa. 

B. Mayal BahAr. 

Persian Essay The Centennial High School. 

Amir Alt. 

Hindi Verses Kahir Das, Philosophy. 

Abinath Chunder Roy. 

Urdu Prose Composition . Episode in the Life of an Indian School-boy. 

Thomas Bakrow. 



192 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

Song, Tbancadillo . . Invitation to a Sailing Excursion on the Goomtee 

Nadi. 

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL. 

Distribution of Prizes. 

ADDRESS BY THE CHAIRMAN, J. QUINN, ESQ. 

Hymn " Bringing in the Sheaves.'^'' 

Address The Opening of the New School Building. 

Rev. W. Butler, D.D. 

Declaring the New Building Open for Educational Purposes. 

Bj the Commissioner. 
"Malika Salamat Ho." 



Even "Trancadillo" was a sign of the times. Here 
was " the tender passion " doing homage to woman. 
The song was addressed to the " fair maidens " pres- 
ent, by the gallant yonng gentlemen, asking the honor 
of their company in a sailing excursion on the River 
Goomtee, which flows through Lucknow, and avow- 
ing that, 

" The lovely should still 
Be the care of the brave," 

and also pledging themselves, if the " maidens fair " 
would only accompany them, that, 

" We will shape our heart's course 
By the light of your smiles." 

It was but a little thing, yet it intimated the future 
that Christianity is bringing in for woman, when she 
should be no longer disposed of, in the highest inter- 
ests of her life, as though she were a cow or a bale of 
merchandise, at the selfish whim of her natural pro- 
tectors. But, when her intelligent soul will be ad- 



Fkom Boston to Bareilly. ' 193 

dressed in tones respectful and affectionate, and 
incited to link her life with the person she, in ^he 
freedom of her choice, prefers — Christianity will vin- 
dicate the right of honest nature to speak, and to hear, 
and to respond; and the good God will delight to 
look down upon many a quiet scene (now unknown 
there outside of Christianity) where manly Christian 
youth will plead liis own case in person, and win it, 
too, not by his list of " gift and dowry," and the me- 
diation of a go-between, but because "he spoke to 
tlie heart of the damsel." 

On this programme let me ask attention to a few 
facts. This event occurred in Lucknow, and close 
to that ever-famous Kesidency. The gentleman pre- 
siding is the English governor of that city, and by his 
side sat the Christian Eajah, Hernan Singh, already 
mentioned. The building was crowded with the schol- 
ars and their parents and friends, about one half of 
the number being heathen and Mohammedans. Many 
of the elite of the city were among them, and seemed 
to enjoy the occasion and the exercises as much as 
any one else. The graduates used seven languages in 
their papers— -the Urdu ( Hindustanee), the Hindee, 
and Bengalee, with their classics (the Persian, the 
Arabic, and Sanskrit), besides the English. It is a 
sign of the times that one half of the exercises on 
that occasion were in the English tongue. It was a 
decidedly Christian occasion. There was the opening 

prayer, in the name of Jesus, offered by the presiding 
13 



194 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

elder. The antliem was glorious. It was " Cliris- 
tianitj's Call to India," I give the words here ! 

"Arouse thee! Arouse thee! Arouse thee ! 
From slumber ! Arouse thee 1 

From the dead; arise, 
Christ will give thee light ; 

Trust in him forever, 
He thy rock, thy strength and might, 
Thy sword, thy banner and shield. 
Awake ! Awake ! Arise from the dead I 

Arouse thee ! Arouse thee ! Arouse thee 1 " 

The closing hymn, " Bringing in the Sheaves," .was 
appropriate to the occasion. What its significance 
was to ns, in view of the past, my readers maj 
ima^^ine. 

In mj address, which followed this hymn, I recog- 
nized what God had wrought in Lncknow since I 
first entered it, to make such a scene as this possible ; 
and then called the attention of our worthy chairman 
to the discouragement which I received from his pred- 
ecessor in office twenty-seven years before. 

He seemed surprised that any Englishman or 
Christian could doubt the ability of our holy religion 
to reach and save these people, or any people. 
But words would fail to express adequately what 
that occasion was to us in view of* the fearful past, 
with which our memory kept all the time contrast- 
ing it ! 

We finished with a hearty singing by all present 
of the last item on the programme, " Malika salamat 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 195 

ho" (God save the Queen), in the Hindustanee lan- 
guage. I give the words : 

" Malika salamat ho 
Ya Allah Malika ko 

Kakh tu bakhair : 
Kar tu use fathmand, 
Khush-hal aur sarbuland, 
Raj us ka iqbalmand : 

Malika ki khair ! " 

The "oalue of this Christian college to our work in 
India must be clear to every thoughtful person ; but 
here 1 will quote a few sentences in illustration of 
this from the circular of Rev. B. H. Badlej, A.M., 
the present principal of the college : 

'' During the first two years only Christian students 
were admitted ; but as others desired to attend, and 
were willing to study the Bible and conform to all 
the regulations of the school, they were enrolled as 
day-scholars, and Christians and non-Christians are 
nov7 found in all the classes. The plan has w^orked 
well, and it is hoped that the daily contact with 
Christian teachers and students may be the means of 
bringing many of the others to Christ, and that the 
institution may thus become a powerful evangelizing 
agency. The Bible is a daily text-book, and in the 
lower classes the Church Catechisms are taught. 
While the school is chiefly intended for Christian 
boys, its projectors feel that they are justified in 
seeking to extend the sphere of its helpful influence, 



196 Fkom Bostoh to Bakeilly. 

and tlius, following the example of the Christian col- 
leges in Calcutta, Madras, and elsewliere, thej do not 
close its doors to the Hindu and Mohammedan yonth 
who seek admission. 

" The need of such an institution is seen in the fact 
that already the school has drawn students from all 
parts of Central and l^orth India, from Calcutta, Al- 
lahabad, Cawnpore, Agra, Gujrat, Jeypore, Morada- 
bad, Bareilly, Shahjahanpore. Paori, and elsewhere ; 
and now, with suitable buildings, and a strong staff 
of first-class teachers, there is no doubt that the at- 
tendance will speedily be doubled. 

" The patronage of the school is not confined to 
our own Church. Students in attendance have rep- 
resented the Church of England, the Presbyterian, 
United Presbyterian, Wesley an. Baptist, and other 
Churches, and thus it will be in the future. Within 
a circle of four hundred and fifty miles there is no 
other boarding-school for Christian boys, and in the 
territory thus indicated there are several flourishing 
missions. The popularity of our Theological Sem- 
inary at Bareilly has drawn students of other Church- 
es in distant fields, and our Christian College will be 
able to do the same. 

" This school will be a great boon to our rapidly- 
increasing native Christian community. It will in- 
sure to the sons of our converts educational facilities 
which otherwise they could not enjoy, and will thus 
give a preparation which will enable them to com- 



Fkom Bostoint to Baeeilly. 197 

pete for situations in government service and otlier 
departments wliicli have liitherto been virtually closed 
to them. As missionaries of a progressive Church, 
which has always believed in schools and colleges, 
encouraging in the most practical manner every ef- 
fort for furthering the cause of education, we cannot 
but feel concerned for the converts God is giving us 
in India. We want not only a Church, but a strong, 
intelligent, clear-headed, warm-hearted Church in 
India, which shall be the means, in God's hands, of 
advancing the interests of his kingdom here. We 
would not be content to have our converts and their 
children remain in the same low level of intelligence 
w^here the Gospel found them. We wish for them 
growth, advancement, success ; and one of the wisest 
niethods for insuring these is to found good schools, 
whose uplifting influence shall be felt in years to 
come. 

"This institution, supplementing the work of the 
lower schools in the mission, gives unity and com- 
pleteness to our educational system, and thus adds to 
the efficiency and satisfactoriness of all our educa- 
tional work ; without it we should have the discour- 
agement of seeing our most interesting pupils de- 
prived of religious instruction at the most critical 
period of their education. In training young men to 
become teachers this school will do excellent service, 
as the demand in all parts of the field is rapidly in- 
ci-easing. We could employ two hundred Christian 



198 From Boston to Bareilly. 

teachers at once were they available. As they are 
not, we are obliged to intrust many of our primary 
schools to Hindu and Mohammedan teachers. 

" The Christian College, like similar institutions at 
home, will, also, be of assistance to our Theological 
Seminary. By giving our young men a thorough 
education before sending them to the Theological 
School we shall render both them and India Meth- 
odism valuable service. Our work demands educated 
native preachers, and this demand will be more 
keenly felt every year. In towns and villages much 
of the work can be done by those whose scliolastic 
attainments are not high — earnest, humble workers, 
laboring among their own relatives ; but in our city 
work, and in various appointments, w^e must have 
well-educated helpers, able to answer the numerous 
and often difficult objections which our opponents 
bring forward. Out of the one hundred and fifty 
native preachers now employed in the l^orth India 
Conference, only one has passed the Calcutta Uni- 
versity Entrance Examination (matriculation), a fact 
which speaks for itself, and a very strong argument 
in favor of a well-organized Christian college. Sev- 
eral of the most promising students now attending 
the Centennial School are planning to enter the The- 
ological Seminary at Bareilly, and this number no 
doubt will be larger year by year. 

" We find ourselves in the midst of a great educa- 
tional movement. The intellect of India is awaldng 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 199 

from its sleep of more than twenty centuries, and 
every-where the youth may be seen thronging toward 
the school-room. We had boldly entered the coun- 
try, and challenged Mohammedanism and Hinduism 
to combat, and now we had no alternative short of 
retreat left us, save that of manfully trying to meet 
the momentous responsibilities which the intellectual 
awakening had imposed upon us. It is idle to talk 
of confining our work to preaching alone. As well 
try to persuade the Church at home to abolish her 
colleges and seminaries. We had no choice. To 
liave shrunk from our responsibility would have 
been to postpone our final triumph for generations 
to come, and consign the intellect of the country to 
a depraved infidelity, compounded of the supersti- 
tion of the Hindu, the bigotry of the Mohammedan, 
and the Sadducean heartlessness of the European ra- 
tionalist. We saw clearly that Christianity must at 
once assume her full responsibility in trying to guide 
this educational movement so as to make it a blessing, 
instead of a curse, to India, and hence were obliged to 
adapt our plans to the emergency, giving our schools 
a higher grade and a wider field in w^hich to operate 
than is usual in missions in other countries. ... A 
great many colleges have sprung up throughout the 
country in affihation with the Calcutta University ; an 
institution chartered by the government with full 
university powers ; and our more advanced students 
began to leave us in order to secure the superior ad- 



200 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

vantages wliicli these institutions were able to offer. 
It was seen by all that a college was a necessity. A 
central institution, more or less directly connected 
with all our schools, seemed necessary to keep our 
students from leaving us, and save the prestige of 
our mission. 

" More than half of the endowment is yet to be 
secured. Tliat the Church at home should allow an 
opportunity like this to pass unnoticed is not to be 
thought of for a moment. Surely there are those 
who will gladly aid in building up a Methodist 
college in heathen India. We do not hesitate to ex- 
press our full confidence in the final success of the 
enterprise. We believe, that in a country where the 
utmost care is taken to divorce education and religion, 
God will not fail to honor and bless the college that 
writes Christian over its portals. 

" Of the $50,000 desired for endowment, it is hoped 
that some patron or patroness of the scliool may be 
found who will give half the amount. 

" The sum of $5,000 would found a professorship. 

" Five hundred dollars a scholarship. 

" The interest of this comparatively small sum, by 
the strictest economy, would support a student, pay 
for his clothes, food, and books, and when the holder 
of the scholarship graduates another would take his 
place. Thus the work would continue year by year, 
a constant source of help and blessing. Forty schol- 
arships are needed. 



Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 201 

" This endowment should be all the sooner secured 
when it is remembered that the government of India 
stands ready to duplicate every dollar of the school's 
income. The government is now giving the school 
a monthly grant, which will be increased as rapidly 
as the endowment is increased. Every donation in 
America means a like donation in India. This fact 
alone should stimulate to promptest action those who 
believe in the salvation of India, and wish to help 
in bringing this about. Seldom has there been a 
grander opportunity than this for making an invest- 
ment that shall yield large dividends in the estab- 
lishing, upbuilding, and beautifying the native Church 
of India." 

We have tliirteen Sunday-schools in the city of 
Lucknow, containing fourteen hundred scholars. I 
visited as many of them as my time allowed, and on 
inquiring where they found teachers for so many 
classes, was delighted to be informed that one half 
of the requisite number were furnished from the 
elder students of this college. Two or three years 
of this experience serves as an excellent preparation 
for religious service when they graduate. 

They also accompany the missionaries to street 
preaching and heathen fairs, and help in the work 
there, singing and speaking to the people. Some of 
them are good singers, and their help is very valu- 
able. 

The elements in motion for intellectual supremacy 



202 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

in India are clearly intimating the position which 
Christianity is yet to hold over the minds of these 
millions. Even now, while this religion is perse- 
cuted, and its adherents are poor, its young men, 
triumphing over all its difficulties, are rising more 
rapidly already than are the youth of any other 
creed. As an illustration, take one fact, lately no- 
ticed by Dr. Thoburn, in the India Witness. He 
says : 

" We have repeatedly called attention to the rapid 
change which is taking place in the position of the 
native Christians of India. They are still but a 
handful, as compared with the great masses of the 
Hindus and Mohammedans, but their advance in 
education is, relatively, far beyond all other compet- 
itors. The last number of the Harvest Field con- 
tains a very striking statement of the relative num- 
bers of Brahmins, non-Brahmin Hindus, Moham- 
medans, and Christians, who passed the various exam- 
inatioDS of the Madras University. At the entrance 
examination the four classes stood respectively as fol- 
lows : 2,702, 1,303, 106, and 332. The percentage of 
passes among the Christians was 45.4, and among the 
Brahmins only 35.04, while the other two classes 
were still lower. In the first arts examination the 
Christian average was 59.6, the Brahmins 34.02, and 
other Hindus 32.1. In the B.A. examination the 
Christians held their advanced position, while the 
Brahmins gained largely. Taken as a whole, the 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 203 

figures clearly show that the native Christians will, 
in the course of two or three generations, take the 
intellectual lead in India. Some of those who now 
despise them would do well to study the past history 
of Christian progress in all nations." 

Our next visit was to the Mission Press. The ne- 
cessity and importance of this agency of evangeliza- 
tion was manifest to me from the beginning of our 
mission. 

I find in my report to the Missionary Board, dated 
March 10, 185Y, that even thus early I introduced 
this subject to their attention, and added my earnest 
hope in regard to it in these words : " I trust to live 
to see some of our blessed literature sanctifying this 
language, and carrying to the judgment and con- 
sciences of thousands that we cannot reach directly 
the pure, experimental Gospel of Christ." 

As soon as my brethren reached me, and had time 
to gain the language and study the requirements of 
the situation, they, too, saw its imperative necessity, 
not only for the millions around us, but also for our 
converts, our schools, and our rising ministry. 

Accordingly, when, in 1861, I had obtained encour- 
agement and help from the Tract Society of our 
Church, I made a proposition to the members of the 
mission for a contribution among ourselves, so that a 
commencement might be made. I had their earnest 
sympathy in the matter. In gifts or loans about 
$800 was raised. I appointed Brother Waugh, being 



204 Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

a practical printer, to the charge, and our mission 
press begun its useful career. A career that is des- 
tined never to cease its beneficent action until Meth- 
odism has finished its work in India. 

It is pleasant now to remember that the first pro- 
duction which issued from our press, in the language 
of these millions, was a tract on tlie Witness of the 
Holy Spirit, written bj Brotlier Parsons, a copy of 
which I sent to Dr. Durbin July 9. This was soon 
followed by translations of Mr. Wesley's sermons on 
The New Birth and Salvation hy Faith, Catechisms, 
Hymn Books, two Sunday-school books, and some 
tracts. At the close of 1864, when the missions were 
organized into an Annual Conference, the entire value 
of the establishment had grown to be a little over 
$3,000. 

From this humble beginning has developed this 
invaluable mission press in Lucknow, with its cata- 
logue of works in three languages-— Hindustan ee, 
Hindu, and English, and from which our mission is 
supplied with its present requirements, from a tract 
to a biblical dictionary, or from a catechism to a 
concordance. 

Here are found periodicals, atlases, hymnals, biog- 
raphies, school books, course of study, histories. Dis- 
cipline, commentaries, grammars, conversion and life 
of some of our native preachers, etc., so that their 
little catalogue looks quite imposing already. 

But as these brethren have come to comprehend 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 205 

tlie necessity and power of the press, not only for the 
wants of the thousands of their converts and scholars, 
but more especially for the futui'e of their work 
among the millions around them, they realize how 
utterly inadequate are the present appliances of their 
press for the work it must do, if they are to win the 
success for which they pray. 

Heathenism and Mohammedanism are at last thor- 
oughly aroused, and are even endowing printing- 
presses to arrest the onward march of Christianity. 

We have silenced many of tlieir batteries by bazaar 
preaching, but they are now transferring the battle 
to the printed page, and are flooding the land with 
misrepresentations of the Christian religion and its 
divine Author. We must meet them here, also, in 
the defense of our work, and for the flnal overthrow 
of tlieir false and wicked systems. That contest will 
be fierce, and will rage for long years to come ; but, 
as sure as God lives, it w411 end in victory for the 
truth, if these devoted and cultured brethren are only 
sustained with those " sinews of war " which the su- 
preme occasion w^ill demand. Happy and grateful 
forever will be the liberal souls that will come to 
their aid soon, to furnish the means by which this 
contest will be turned to victory for Jesus, over all 
the falsehood and sophistry of systems which have 
stood for ages to pollute and crush the souls which 
lie died to enlighten and save. 

Fifty thousand dollars would confer upon this mis- 



206 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

sion press a power for God and his truth the effect of 
which no arithmetic could calculate, in this final con- 
test, which is to lay low in the dust the enemies of 
the Son of God, and place rescued and redeemed 
India at Iiis feet as her Master and Lord. Every 
dollar of that amount contributed to help them wdll, 
in its measure, accelerate that hour whicli the celestial 
clioirs are waiting to celebrate over this prostrate 
and defeated heathenism, that " the kingdoms of 
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and 
ever." 

How grateful I shall be if any thing I may say 
here, or elsewhere, shall be used by God to draw the 
attention of those who have the heart and the means 
to help this precious mission press in the immense 
and hopeful work for Christianity which now lies 
before it ! 

I saw in Lucknow a sight that is not often given 
to men to witness in this world, and which I 
have never forgotten since. Being here on the 
groand, its significance has come back to me with 
peculiar force, as I move amid so many of its results. 
It w^as when our siege was raised at l!^ynee Tal by 
the coming up of Havelock's invalids under convoy. 
This opened .our roads, and I returned to Oude, and 
entered Lucknow for the second time. Sir Robert 
Montgomery was then the head of the government, 
in succession to Sir Henry Lawrence. He believed in 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 207 

missions, and received me most cordially, promising 
to aid us in every way tliat lie could. I was on tliis 
occasion also a guest at the government house, and 
the morning after my arrival went out to see the re- 
captured city — so much changed for the better — and 
the Residency, now so famous for the siege which it 
had endured during the fifteen months that had 
intervened. 

On returning in the afternoon. Sir Robert took me 
into the inclosure behind his house to show me the 
result of the disarmament which he had completed. 
The forts of those talookdars of Oude had to be 
dismantled; the cannon w^ere surrendered to him, 
and he proceeded to disarm the population of the 
turbulent city, all parties being given to understand 
that the day of brute force was over, and that of law 
and peace had begun. 

What to do with the vast store of " weapons of 
war," of all sorts and shapes, was the question now to 
be decided. 

After consideration, he concluded to do a very 
wise and safe thing with them, namely, to transform, 
them into agricultural implements. 

So, when he brought me into the inclosure to see 
what he was doing, there were the weapons in great 
heaps all over the place, and among them were 
several moveable forges, with the blacksmiths hard 
at work, effecting this wonderful transformation. It 
would not be easy to match, anywhere, such a curious 



208 Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

variety of offensive weapons as were here displayed 
in profusion before us. 

Their terrible work of cruelty was ended, however, 
and it looked like the morning of the millennium to 
see them rapidly changing their shape and purpose, 
as the smiths fulfilled the wondrous prophecy, and 
that, too, in such a place as Lucknow. Perhaps in the 
history of our race there has never been a more literal 
and extensive fulfillment of Jehovah's prediction : 
" He shall judge among many people, and rebuke 
strong nations afar off ; and thev shall beat their 
swords into plowsliares, and their spears into pruning 
hooks : nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, 
neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall 
sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree ; 
and none shall make them afraid : for the mouth of 
the Lord of hosts hath spoken it." Micah iv, 3, 4. 

The good chief commissioner said to me, " Would 
you not wish to secure some souveni/r of the Sepoy 
rebellion before they are all used up ? " I replied 
that I would, indeed, be glad to do so. He told me 
to help myself ; which I did, taking out two Sepoy 
swords, a Koohrie (a Ghoorka weapon, used for rip- 
ping up or disemboweling) and a Talwar (for behead- 
ing) — the latter especially repulsive, being so hooked 
and loaded at the extremity, that, in the expert hands 
of those trained to its use, the person to suffer had 
only to be bent forward a little, and a blow over the 
pivotal joint of the neck, with the rapid pull that 



From Boston to Bareilly. 209 

followed, would sweep tlie head from tlie shoulders, 
and lay it at the feet of the wretched victim ! 

The blood-stains on all of them bore testimony to 
their having been used for their respective purposes. 
1 have them still, and never look at them but I think 
of God's reference to such, when he says, " Instru- 
ments of cruelty are in their habitations ; " and also to 
thank him that his holy and powerful providence has 
wrenched them out of the murderous hands that 
wielded them, so often unjustly and in vengeance ; 
and has, instead, introduced tlie restraints of law, and 
the more humane penalties which proved crime re- 
ceives at the hands of the Christian civilization that 
now holds sway in Oude and in all India. 

"We went out to the Alumbagh, five miles from 
the city, to visit the grave of General Havelock. 
This resting-place of " the gallant chief of gallant 
men " seemed holy ground to us as we again stood 
around it. 

He knows now, no doubt, what an aggregate of 
good has resulted to India herself, and to Christian- 
ity, from the weary marches, the endurance, and 
victories of himself and the heroes whom he led to 
the relief of Lucknow. 

I trie^, in The Land of the Yeda, to tell the won- 
derful story of that siege and relief, and so need 
make only this passing reference to it here. England 
has commemorated these events in a great historical 

picture. The picture and the ruin still remain, while 
14 



210 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

almost every one of the actors in that scene have 
passed away. Such are the clianges of twenty-seven 
years ! 

History tells of heroes in many lands, but the 
union of the hero and the saint, in the same indi- 
vidual, is not often realized. Here, however, sleeps 
one such, whose memorv all Christendom loves to 
honor ; and who to-day comprehends, by glorious 
experience, the higher significance of being in the 
spiritual warfare, and forever " more than conqueror 
through Him that loved " him. 

From this we went to the ruins of the Eesidency. 
I had seen them as they were a short time after 
their relief, in all their torn and terrible desolation, 
when we had to walk cautiously around them, where 
mines and counter-mines had been run, and tlie 
heavy footfall so often sounded hollow to the tread. 
But, now, all is delightfully changed. The whole 
place has been turned into a beautiful little park, 
where ample means and good taste have done their 
best to embellish this ever-memorable locality. 

After due consideration, the government concluded 
that they would not demolish the battered walls; they 
Avould let them continue just as they were, that they 
might remain a memorial to the coming ages of the 
valor of the Christian few against the heathen many. 
So the fissures were closed up, and the w^alls covered 
on the top with cement, that will keep them perma- 
nently from disintegration by the weather. There 



Fbom Bostojs" to Baeeilly. 211 

they stand, tliose ivy-clad ruins, preserved as a ceno- 
taph, to comniemorate a Christian endurance and valor 
which have, perhaps, no parallel in the annals of his- 
tory. None enter these hallowed walls without 
solemnity; even royalty itself — as in th« case of the 
visit of the Prince of Wales — ^stands, with uncovered 
head and tear-dimmed eyves, in the presence of that 
memorial of " The Besieged of Luckn<3w," 

How appropriately and grandly was this heartfelt 
homage illustrated in the visit here of the great vice- 
roy, Lord Lawrence, whose brother Henry it was 
that conducted the memorable defense, until he was 
killed by the bursting shell which went tlirough the 
window on the right hand side into the room where 
he stood. 

After his heroic defense of the Punjab, and the 
taking of Delhi, Sir John Lawrence returned for rest 
to England. Her majesty soon raised him to the 
peerage, and then sent him back as her viceroy of all 
India, in order to give solidity to the new and better 
state of things which the valor of himself and his 
associates had won. 

One of the measures which he adopted was tlie 
holding of several grand durbars (state receptions) 
with the princes and chiefs of India, in order to 
promote a good understanding with them in regard 
to those measures (education included) of peace 
and improvement by which the Indian empire 
might rise into a higher and better life than it 



212 From Bostois" to Baeeilly. 

had hitherto known. The nobles responded to the 
government, and some of the most magnificent as- 
semblies that the East has ever witnessed occurred 
at that time. 

The durbar at Lucknow ranked among the highest. 
This city had never beheld such a splendid pageant 
as that which then took place. The wonderful scene 
is fully depicted in the second volume of the vice- 
roy's life, by Dr. S. Smith, published three years 
since. Before leaving England, Lord Lawrence had 
to visit Oxford, to be invested with the dignity of 
an LL.D. by that venerable University. 

It happened that the theme of the Prize Poem 
that year, by H. Aglen, was " Lucknow." Of course 
the special reference was to the heroic services and 
death of Henry, the elder brother of Lord Law- 
rence, whose humble grave lies within the Residency 
walls. 

The viceroy had not been in Lucknow since his 
brother's death ; he had not yet looked on those bat- 
tered walls, nor the scene of that famous defense. 

Lord Lawrence's reception at the University was 
of the most enthusiastic kind. As he entered, tlie 
vast audience rose to receive him, and the applause 
was again and again renewed. He took his seat on 
the dais, and before his investiture, the poet of the 
occasion stood forth to read his production. 

When he came to the lines referring to Henry 
Lawrence's death, there were few dry eyes in the 



From Boston to Baketlly. 213 

assembly, and the viceroy's heart was deeply moved 
as the words rolled over the audience : 

*' Whose lion-courage and whose wisdom tried, 

^o failing hearts his own stout hope supplied. 

0, greedy death ! 0, cruel bursting shell ! 

There fell their tower of strength when Lawrence fell ! " 

The viceroy was ere long to feel it all, in even a 
higher degree, when he should stand on the spot 
itself, and by Henry's grave, to realize what price, in 
blood and suffering, had to be paid in order that, in 
this sense also, " old things " should " pass away, and 
all things become new " for long-benighted Hindustan. 

After his arrival in Indfa the arrangements were 
made for assembling these durbars. The one for 
Lucknow was held in 1867. 

As the governor-general's cavalcade approached 
the city, it was met by the assembled talookdars in 
all the splendor that their wealth could provide. 

The chief external feature of the occasion was a 
magnificent procession of first-class elephants, seven 
hundred in number, splendidly caparisoned, on which 
the talookdars were mounted. They were in line on 
both sides of the road, and were waiting for the vice- 
roy's approach. 

But his heart had, as it were, gone ahead to the 
inclosure, where that noble band, under command of 
his gallant brother, had maintained, against such fear- 
ful odds, that ever memorable defense in 1857. He 
decided, therefore, not to pause, or perform any act 



214 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

of state or courtesy until after lie had first visited 
that sacred spot. The mahout was directed to guide 
his elephant straight on to the Hesidency, between that 
waiting line of nobles, without stopping. After he 
passed they wheeled in behind him, and the entire 
cavalcade followed where many of them would have 
least desired to go. 

As soon as the inclosure w^as reached the proces- 
sion halted, and Lord Lawrence descended from his 
elephant. His brilliant staff remained where they 
were, and he advanced alone, till he stood riglit in 
front of the Residency, and before that window 
through which that 

" Cruel bursting shell " 

had passed. Away on his left hand was the grave 
which contained the remains of Henry. 

There he stood alone, in simple black dress, with- 
out an order or ornament on his person, his hands 
crossed in front of him, lost in thought and sympa- 
thy, while around him were those hundreds of ta- 
lookdars in all "their bravery of purple and gold," 
and mounted so splendidly, with tens of thousands 
of people looking on. 

In front of all were the roofless walls of that ter- 
ribly battered Residency, presenting the dents and 
chasms made by millions of rifle bullets and thou- 
sands of cannon-balls. He knew that among the no- 
bles and crowd around were some of the parties who 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 215 

had done these deeds and killed that brother. Still 
there he stood, separate and alone, gazing in sympa- 
thy upon the ruins before theniy and realizing all that 
it meant, as he alone conld. 

. Christianity has had glorious triumphs to reflect 
upon. Few of them have been equal, in calm maj- 
esty and signiflcancCy to the wonderful scene where 
that Christian viceroy stood, in quiet dignity and im- 
perial power, with that immense semicircle of heathen 
and Moslem spectators gazing upon him with aston- 
ishment, and realizing, as they could not before, how 
impotent was " heathen rage," and how invincible 
was Christian civilization I 

The Majesty on high, who looked down upon that 
scene, saw there an illustration of his " decree " in the 
second Psalm, as true and delightful as any he has 
yet witnessed in the eastern hemisphere. Lord Law- 
rence, a devout believer in the Son of God, a re- 
specter of his holy Sabbath, and maintaining, as he 
did, a family altar to the Divine glory in his viceregal 
palace, was worthy of the honor which God declares 
he will put upon those who honor him. Could the 
scene have been photographed, one of the grandest 
pictures in history might have originated here. 

The viceroy then remounted his elephant and took 
his position as arranged. The whole of that proces- 
sion went in review before him, each noble rising in 
his howdali, as his elephant passed the viceroy, and 
humbly saluting him as her majesty's representative. 



216 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

When the sights and sahites of that gorgeous pageant 
of submission and loyalty were over, the veteran vice- 
roy again dismounted and walked to the sacred spot 
where was the grave of his lion-hearted brother, and 
there, alone again, he stood for some time wrapped 
in thoughts which were, no doubt, worthy of the 
occasion, and must have included the reflection, how 
his own final and bloodless triumph that day had 
consummated the victory which Henry had died to 
win. 

Although it is no part of my narrative, I cannot 
refrain here from quoting the words of this great 
governor-general seven yeara after, on his return to 
England, in regard to the character and value of 
Christian missions in India. 'No man that England 
ever sent to rule the East. had a better opportunity 
to form and express an opinion upon this subject, 
and his words may well put to shame the contempti- 
ble remarks sometimes made by prejudiced and su- 
perficial travelers and others, who, on their return 
home, presuming on the credulity of the public, 
have volunteered to enlighten them about Christian 
missions. 

The argument with such people is short. The tes- 
timony of men like Lord Lawrence (for many others 
have spoken) flatly contradicts these irresponsible 
scribblers. If he, who knew so well what he said, 
has spoken the truth, and nothing but the truth (and 
he would have affirmed it under oath at the bar of 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 217 

public opinion if necessary), then these people are 
justly chargeable with either prejudice or ignorance, 
if not with both. 

On reaching England, in 1874, Lord Lawrence was 
waited upon by a deputation of the committee of the 
"Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, requesting 
him to favor them with his views on missions in 
India, at the anniversary, in Exeter Hall, London. 
He willingly consented, and the following are the 
words he uttered on that occasion : 

" I believe, notwithstanding all that the English 
people have done to benefit India, that the mission- 
aries have done more than all other agencies com- 
bined. They have had arduous and up-hill work, 
often receiving no encouragement, and sometimes a 
great deal of discouragement from their own coun- 
trymen, and have had to bear the taunts and obloquy 
of those who despised and disliked their preaching ; 
but such has been the effect of their earnest zeal, un- 
tiring devotion, and of the excellent example which 
they have, I may say, universally, shown to the people, 
I have no doubt whatever that, in spite of the great 
majority of the people being intensely opposed to 
their doctrine, they are, as a body, remarkably pop- 
ular in the country. It seems to me that, year by 
year, and cycle by cycle, the influence of tlie mis- 
sionaries must increase, and that, in God's good will, 
the time may be expected to come when large masses 
of the,peo|)le, having lost all faith in their own relig- 



2L8 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

ion, and feeling the want of one wliich is true and 
pure and holy, will be converted and profess the 
Christian faith, and having professed it, live in ac- 
cordance with its precepts. 

"I have a great reverence and regard for them 
(the missionaries), both personally and for the sake of 
the great cause in which they are engaged ; and I 
feel it to be a pleasure and a privilege to do any 
thing I can, in the last years of my life, to further 
the great work for which they have done so much." ^ 

Our mission in Lucknow, dating from September, 
1858, on securing property in the Hossainabad dis- 
trict of the city, inclosed a little portion as a mission 
cemetery. 

One of our first visits, on our return, was to this 
spot, so sacred to ns, for the earliest grave dug there 
was for ourselves. A lovely babe had, for four 
months, diffused a beautiful light in our home, and 
was gaining a great hold upon our poor hearts. I left 
in the middle of March, 1859, to go round my district 
and be absent about two weeks. In those days no 
telegraph connected the various points of our great 
field, and post-office aiTangements were slow and im- 
perfect. So I would sometimes be many days without 
hearing from my family. It thus happened on this 
occasion. When my work was done I left the western 
end of the mission and started for liome, three days' 
journey to the east, anticipating the joy of meeting 

*Life, by Smith, vol. ii, p. 528. 



Eeom Boston to Baeeilly. 219 

my dear ones again, and especially the little darling, 
whose arms were always stretched out with such joy 
to greet papa. 

It was evening when I arrived, and after saluting 
my wife, who seemed unusually reserved in her man- 
ner, I turned, as was my habit, to enter the bedroom 
and look into the cradle. 

The fact could no longer be concealed. My wife, 
not able further to control herself, sprung to her feet 
and grasped my arm to stop me. The cradle was 
empty! The beautiful babe had been in the little 
cemetery for more than two days ! The mother had 
to go through that bitter pang alone, and have the 
grave dug, and lay our darling down there in my 
absence ! Death in India is often very prompt, and 
the grave has to be quickly prepared. 

How often since have our hearts turned to that 
little cemetery. This was to be our last chance of 
entering it. We found all in order. Some kind 
hand had placed a flower there. In companionship 
with our babe sleeps one of the little orphans. The 
two side by side. The one born in a heathen home, 
the other a child dedicated from its birth to the Holy 
Trinity; but the precious blood of the divine Re- 
deemer is as available for the one as for the other, 
and both will rise together in the resurrection at the 
last day. The next grave is that of Rev. Joseph R. 
Downey, who died September 16th, in the same year 
(thirty days after his nrrival in Indin), the first death 



220 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

among our missionaries. Then there are the graves 
of three more little ones, cliildren of our missionaries, 
and of Sister Pierce, and Brother Fieldbrave (one of 
our native ministers), who was a great help to me 
when commencing the mission at Bareilly, and of 
whom I shall have more to say after we reach that 
station. 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 221 



CHAPTER YI. 

" Around his sign, 
His call'd, his chosen, faithful friends, combine ; 
In might invincible they nobly wield 
The sword of temper and the sevenfold shield ; 
Fixed in the firm resolve to sleep no more 
While hell's dread hosts their banded legions pour ; 
While blood-stained idols haunt the withering earth, 
While superstition rears her demon birth. 
While Antichrist his hydra form extends. 
Or man, debased, to groveling folly bends ; 
While unsubdued Messiah's latest foe. 
Or earth its curse by sin and suffering know." 

— MessiaJi's Kingdom. 

Instead of going on direct to Bareillj from tliis 
place, we will here make a detour, and visit the 
imperial city of Delhi. From that point we shall 
best come, in the order of time, in contact with 
events that have their outcome at Bareilly, and which, 
in their results, have affected the progress of our 
missions, and tended so largely to give them that 
development which calls to-day for so much gratitude 
to God. 

When we entered India, this city of the Great 
Moguls (as the Delhi emperors were so long called) 
retained much of its splendor. Its Chandnee Chowk 
(Street of Silver) was one of the richest bazaars in the 
East, and here the Mohammedan princes and aris- 



222 From Boston to Baeeillt. 

tocracy displayed their magnificence and spent their 
wealth. 

Ten weeks after the city was captured by the En- 
glish forces — in the Christmas week of 1857 — I en- 
tered the gates, which were opened to us at midnight 
by an English sentinel. The entire native population 
(pending the trials then taking place) were required 
to leave the city every evening at sunset, to return at 
daylight for their business. So that, with the excep- 
tion of the great fortified palace in the center, where 
the army and the prisoners were lodged, there was 
no one in the entire city at night. 

On reaching the Travelers' Kest House, impelled 
by curiosity and the extraordinary position in which 
I found myself, I left my luggage, and, taking my 
lantern, walked out into, the once magnificent chowk. 
How awful a cajDtured city is in these circumstances I 
Ruin was on every hand ; all doors and windows were 
open, and yet not a sign of life, save the wretched 
dogs and cats which prowled amid these ruins. Ev- 
ery thing was dark around me. "No ray of light, save 
what I carried in my hand. 

When I came to the Kotwalee (the police station) 
in the square, the scene of those terrible massacres of 
the English ladies, and their children and husbands, 
done on the 12th and 13th of the previous May — the 
fearful story of which resounded over the civilized 
world — I stopped, horrified to realize that I was 
standing on the scene of their suffering, on the very 



Fkom BosToiQ' TO Baeeilly. 



23 



ground that drank their blood ! I was not aware — 
for the darkness hid it from my view — that, right 
over my head, was the immense gallows on which 
those crimes were being expiated, day after day, as 
the guilt was brought home to its perpetrators. I 
stood there and remembered, as we noticed at the 
time, that the Scripture Lesson in the Calendar for 
the day when the city was taken was JN^ahum iii, be- 
ginning, " Woe to the bloody city," and realized how 
truly the vengeance recounted in the nineteen verses 
following had been fulfilled on guilty Delhi. I felt 
my flesh creep as I recalled the almost matchless 
guilt here transacted, and the cruelty and suffering 
over the land that had followed this dreadful exam- 
ple. The man who was responsible for it all (just 
captured by Hodson and his cavalry) was at that hour, 
a prisoner within the dark walls before me, waiting, 
along with those who had joined him, the sure and 
certain doom of wretches who had descended so low 
as to become the murderers of defenseless women 
and children. 

I retraced my steps, and lay down^ to seek sleep in 
the center of that city of silence, darkness, and guilt ! 
What a close to eight hundred years of Moslem sov- 
ereignty was this ! What would Shah Jehan, the 
magnificent builder of the Taj Mahal and the De- 
wanee-Khass. have thought if, even in his wildest 
dreams, he had imagined that, in such a catastrophe 
of guilt and blood, his imperial house would sink out 



224: Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

of siglit forever amid the general execration of man- 
kind ? Yet so it was, and I was liere to witness it. 
Early next morning I rose from mj uneasy and un- 
refresHng sleep to seek a friend who would guide me 
around. Passing the Kotwalee again, the daylight 
made visible what the darkness had hidden from me. 
There was the great gallows, and from it now were 
dangling down, stiff and dead, several of those 
wretched men who had there suffered for their crimes 
at day -dawn that morning ! I shuddered and has- 
tened on. 

Entering the palace, I found my friend, Lieut. 
Eckford (one half of whose family had been mur- 
dered by the Sepoys), and was taken by him on an 
elephant over the battle-ground and to the gate where 
the assault was given, on the 22d of September. He 
then led me to see the prisoners. It was dreadful to 
behold rajahs and nawabs and men of rank among 
them. But 1 need not add any thing further, as the 
whole subject is fully described in The Land of the 
Yeda. I have gone thus far only to reach the point 
which is not there referred to, and which, when I 
wrote that book, I could not understand as I can see 
it now in all its wonderful results to our growing 
work in the valley of the Ganges. The circumstance 
referred to took place in the beautiful Dewanee-Hhass, 
one day during the trials which I went then to wit- 
ness. The special indictment on which the emperor 
himself was convicted was the murder, witliin his 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 225 

own palace, of the English embassador, the Hon. 
Simon Fraser, with the chaplain of the embassy, Mr. 
Jennings, and the two ladies. 

Before referring further to the peculiar events that 
I have conducted mj readers here to understand, I 
need to bespeak their attention to a fact or two which 
shows their significance and value to our mission. As 
I went through India in 1856, and visited one mis- 
sion after another, I was painfully impressed by the 
general absence of the woman element in the congre- 
gations. It was different in those missions which had 
availed themselves of the opportunity to take up 
orphan girls, in connection with those fearful famines 
which used to occur so frequently, before the En- 
glish government made the canals and irrigation 
works, which have spread fertility over the once dry 
and thirsty portions of the land, and then gave the 
guarantees under which railroads were built. These 
great works enable the surplus of one section to be 
quickly transported to others threatened with want, 
and so strikes down famine when it attempts to lift 
its head. When I entered India there was no such 
benevolent efficiency possible. The only way was the 
old heathen method of supply by bullock carts, over 
a country without made roads, conveying produce at 
the rate which bullocks could afford to keep up 
(about twelve miles per day), so that there might be a 
full provision in one place, and a famine only three 

hundred miles off, which it would require a month 
16 



226 From Boston to Baeeillt. 

to reacli and relieve. All this, too, in a crowded 
population, the majority of whom depended on their 
daily toil for their daily bread. 

Our Presbyterian brethren, who were in the field 
before us, and some other missions, had availed them- 
selves of the opportunity of those famines, to receive 
under their care numbers of the orphans thus left 
destitute. For, in those terrible emergencies, even 
Hindu humanity led the dying parents to give most 
consideration to the little ones, so that, when the 
government would come to the rescue, and send 
round their police into the stricken villages, to save 
the living and bury the dead, those whom they found 
still living would generally be the children. The 
missions w^hich came forward at such times to accept 
the care of some of these wretched little ones, for 
whom the government could make no permanent 
provision, and were only too glad to be relieved of fur- 
ther care on their account, have been well repaid for 
their philanthropy. Hundreds of health}^, educated, 
and devoted men and women to-day in India are the 
result. Our own Joel is one of them. I visited such 
missions in 1856, at Benares and Allahabad, and saw 
what I could not see in other missions, which had not 
the will or ability to do as these had done. The 
female side of the congregations was tolerably well 
filled up. But in the others there w^ould be, say, from 
twenty to fifty men on the men's side, and perhaps 
only from two to five women on the female side of the 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 227 

house. It was necessarily so in our own mission for 
the first couple of years. As I went round my great 
district, and looked at this state of things, I used to lie 
awake at night and wonder how it was to be met. 
Here were a number of young men who attended 
Christian services ; some of them had broken caste 
and united themselves with us, the others were unde- 
cided, in view not only of the persecution to which 
they were sure to be exposed, but also the isolated 
life which lay before them — a life of celibacy as well 
as of persecution. At that time we had but one 
Christian family in the valley, and no girls or girls' 
schools — no source from which these men could be 
supplied with wives if they became Christian. The 
heathen were well pleased with the difficulty, re- 
solved they never should have wives from them. 
They were exultant, as they supposed that they had 
the future of Christianity in their power, to use their 
own figure, like a piece of crumpled paper, on which 
they could close their hand tightly, and so prevent 
their young men from breaking caste and going into 
Christianity. It was a monkish aspect truly, and no 
social future or home seemed possible to them. It 
distressed me exceedingly as I reflected, what could 
our mission accomplish under such circumstances? 
What was to become of these young men, and of 
hundreds more who would enter the schools we were 
to open, and whom we desired to win for Christ ? 
Access to heathen homes was impracticable ; there 



228 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

was not one zenana then open to ns in the whole 
valley. Girls' schools seemed impossible, even if we 
had the female teachers to take charge of them. Our 
first efforts in this line at Bareillj were an utter 
failure, and w^ere met with contempt and ridicule by 
the people as a sort of outrage against their religion 
and their law and ancient civilization. Dr. Duff — a 
prince among missionaries — had gone through the 
same experience in Calcutta, and had resigned the 
effort in despair, and wrote these words (which sound 
so singularly in this better day) in the first edition of 
his book on India, published in 1830. He there 
says, " You might as well try to scale a wall five 
hundred yards high as to attempt female education 
in India." 

'No wonder the heathen exulted in the admission ; 
and, this being so, had made tliemselves quite easy as 
to the spread of Christianity in their country. Of 
course. Dr. Duff lived to see the mighty change, 
wrought by God himself, against all this heathen 
prejudice and resolution. But I am writing of wliat 
we had to face in the early days of our mission. 

I have shown, in the ninth chapter of the work 
already referred to, the terrible legal obstacles to 
the elevation or education of women in India which 
Menu interposed in his " Institutes of Hindu Law," 
a system of legislation next to the Mosaic in venera- 
ble antiquity. This law was so sustained by custom 
and literature, that for long ages it had been held to 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 229 

be woman's religious duty to be content with the lot 
whicli the classics of her country pronounced when 
they said, that ^' Ignorance is woman's truest orna- 
ment," and that any desire for a change was a 
thought which was forbidden to her as a virtuous 
woman. All this fearful wrong was intensified by 
the Mohammedan invasion, eight hundred years ago, 
when that creed of cruelty and lust came bursting 
into India as a conquering power. Their theory and 
vile practices (as the Hindus themselves affirm) tended 
to make the women of the nation more secluded and 
degraded than they were before, so their yoke be- 
came thereby heavier and their chains stronger. 
Here we were, anxious to deliver them, but they 
were unapproachable in either school or zenana, and 
our inability was the more keenly felt in the fact that 
we had no female agency of any kind by which the 
attempt could be made. To save India, while its one 
hundred and thirty millions of women were so jeal- 
ously shut up from our teaching, seemed to postpone 
the salvation of the land indefinitely. Even the 
agency to make the attempt could not be originated 
by any effort of ours ; if we ever obtained it, it must 
come as a gift from Him " who can raise the dead, 
and call the things that are not as though they 
were." 

Underlying all this was a fearful consideration that 
at first I could not understand. One day, in Bareilly, 
we were arguing with an elderly native on the im- 



230 From Boston to Bareilly. 

portance of his consenting tg grant his daughters the 
advantages of education. After we had exhausted 
the usual arguments, and answered the objections 
made by them to such a proposal, he began to fail in 
the usual courtesy, and, in a temper, put this ques- 
tion, with miich energy, "l^ow, sahib, let me ask, 
what interest have you in wishing to make my 
daughters nautch girls ? " and forthwith concluded the 
interview. Even then I did not quite understand 
him. These " nautch girls " I had seen, a few weeks 
before, at the court of the Nawab of Rampore, on the 
occasion of his investiture with a dignity ordered by 
the queen of England for his kindness toward us, who 
were called " The ITynee Tal Refugees," and to whom 
he had extended such sympathy and assistance as he 
dare show while we were shut up and besieged by the 
Sepoy forces of Khan Bahadur, the rebel governor of 
Rohilcund, under this emperor of Delhi. This help, 
which had to be quietly conveyed to us, was in 
money, food, and valuable information as to the time 
and mode of the attacks to be made by Khan Baha- 
dur's troops upon our position on the south-east. He, 
alst>, under the pretense of neutrality, refused to 
allow our south-western road, which ran through his 
territory, to be approached by either friend or foe. 
It was for him a great risk thus to aid us. He had 
to avoid exposing himself to be denounced, and at- 
tacked by the forces of the emperor ; but, faithfully 
sustained by his chief officers, he managed to avoid 



Fkom Bostok to Bajreilly. 231 

compromising himself too far, and yet quietly af- 
forded us this valuable service. We often trembled 
for his safety, surrounded as he was by thousands of 
fanatical Mohammedans in his own capital, who had 
their suspicions that he was in sympathy with the 
Christians in the mountains above, instead of attack- 
ing and cutting us off, as the emperor expected him 
to do. We heard that they even talked of his assas- 
sination, " making him a head shorter," as the phrase 
was, at some of their festivals. It is pleasant to 
think that he was animated in this course, not by 
mere policy — in view of the probability that the En- 
glish would come out victorious and restore their 
authority — but by a grateful sense of obligation for 
the justice he and his house had ever received at the 
hands of the English government, and a desire to re- 
main their friend forever. I heard him very earnest- 
ly avow these convictions publicly on the day of the 
investiture. 

When the conflict was over, he was suitably hon- 
ored and rewarded for the service. Twenty-three of 
us " refugees " (all then within reach) were invited to 
spend the day and dine with him, at his palace at 
Rampore on the occasion, in January, 1860. We 
went, and it was to us a real pleasure to see this 
humane and good man thus honored. Here, for the 
first time, I saw these " nautch girls," their tableaux 
and performances being a part of the entertainment 
which his highness had provided, with which to pass 



232 From Boston to Bareilly. 

the hours of the day that we were to spend with him. 
Even then their full character had not been appre- 
hended by me beyond the fact that they were public 
women, who sang and danced and caricatured for a 
living. 

A few weeks later I was in Lucknow, looking 
into the condition of our boys' school there, when an 
attempt was made by two of these nautch girls to se- 
cure admission to that school, in order to learn the 
English language. Our head teacher at once in- 
formed me who they were, and what their object, 
and the terrible meaning of the phrase " nautch girl " 
was disclosed. They were immediately refused ad- 
mission. 

Alas ! they were members of a profession " whose 
doors are the gates of hell," and their object, in add- 
ing English to their other accomplishments, was to 
facilitate their seductions to those of our own race in 
Lucknow who spoke that language ! They were ac- 
complished for their calling, and thus monopolized 
education, so that the pure ladies of the land loathed 
both, supposing them to be inseparable. The indig- 
nant question of the old native was explained. Pros- 
titution and education were, in his view, combined ; 
and, no doubt, the same opinion was held by many of 
the mothers, who shrank, for this reason, from our 
offer of instruction for their daughters. Surely here 
was one of the devil's own masterpieces, when he had 
so confused and manipulated matters in the minds of 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 233 

the natives around ns, as to bring them to the convic- 
tion that the self-protection which intelligence would 
confer on their women would positively work the 
other way, and thus led the ladies to instinctively 
si 1 rink from education as a degradation which would 
sink them to a level with fallen women, so that puri- 
ty and virtue forbade them to be intelligent. 

Here was one side of that "wall five hundred 
yards high," of which Dr. Duff had written. It was 
disheartening to look up at it, and think of the more 
than one hundred millions of the modest women of 
India on the other side, inclosed within such a false 
and wicked prejudice, living and dying there in ig- 
norance and darkness. To reach them was simply 
impossible to any or to all the male missionaries 
of Christendom. In no way under the heavens 
could they be reached and .enlightened except by 
breaking down the priestly tyranny and public opin- 
ion which sustained such vile and wicked sentiments, 
and by presenting to these timid and credulous creat- 
ures the bright examples of women who had become 
educated without the slightest compromise of their 
purity and character; and this^ not merely by the ex- 
ample of the women of other lands, scattered here 
and there in their country, but by their own women, 
the daughters of India, not only enlightened without 
the loss of modesty, but even exalted in all that was 
lovely, and virtuous, and of good report, by sancti- 
fied intelligence. But where were these examples to 



234 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

come from for our work in the Gangetic valley ? 
God alone knew. And he did know, and was even 
then 

Treasuring " up his bright designs " 
To work "his sovereign will " 

on behalf of these long imprisoned souls, for whose 
deliverance we were so solicitous and prayerful. I 
could not even imagine how it was to be done, but 
having put the whole matter into his hands, was hum- 
bly and patiently consenting to be " led by a way " 
that I knew not. How plain it all seems now as we 
walk in the light into which he led us, out of the 
darkness of twenty-five years ago. A golden chain 
of many links had to be formed by the hand of God 
to lift up these poor ignorant creatures out of their 
misapprehension and prejudice. I^ot one zenana was 
then open to us, even if we had the suitable agents to 
enter them, which we had not ; now there are a thou- 
sand zenanas open, thank God ! and we have, in in- 
creasing numbers, the suitable and successful agents 
to enter them. 

1. One of the greatest changes the Orient ever saw 
was here originated. How was it done? Let us 
enter Delhi and see the first link in process of devel- 
opment, so that it should be fully formed in time to 
have the other requisite links united to it after God 
had prepared the way during the ensuing twelve 
years. When we reach Bareilly we shall find and 
take up those other links of this blessed chain, all 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 235 

united with this one here, and complete for their 
object, and then see the wonderful purpose of the 
Almighty fully manifest on behalf of our mission, 
and the special work for which he had led us to 
India. 

In the book so often referred to I give the full 
account of my visit to the fallen emperor just before 
his trial. These trials were held in the magnificent 
Dewanee-Khass, the throne-room of the Moguls, the 
very center of the conspiracy which had instigated 
and extended such bloodshed and woe over India 
eight months before. Here, in this most gorgeous 
audience hall in the East, it was arranged that those 
state trials should be held before a commission of 
English officers of high rank. They sat on one 
side of the emperor's musnud, or throne, made of a 
block of crysta], and which had done duty in place 
of that wonderful Taht Taous, or " Peacock Throne," 
on which the Emperor Shah Jehan had expended, 
according to history, the enormous sum of thirty 
milKons sterling ($150,000,000). The fame of this 
matchless seat had attracted thither, in March, 1739, 
that ferocious conqueror, Nadir Shah, the Persian 
king, who overthrew the army of the Mogul em- 
peror, plundered his treasury, and appropriated that 
Taht Taous J and, after slaying, in mere wantoness of 
massacre, nearly one hundred thousand of the help- 
less inhabitants of Delhi, men, women, and children, 
marched off with the plundered trophies to Persia. 



236 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

It was in this same gorgeous apartment wliere this 
Persian monster sat, and cliaffingly taunted his im- 
perial captive, who trembled in his presence, and was 
glad to be rid of him even at this fearful price of 
blood and treasure, that the last of this grand and 
guilty line of Mogul emperors and his associates 
were, in this December of 1857, placed on trial for 
their lives, and it was my lot, unexpected, but provi- 
dential, to be here to witness this final catastrophe. 
My opportunity was all the more remarkable from 
the fact that it could not be shared by others, the 
only road then open to Delhi being the Punjab road, 
down which I came from Dehra Doon. Forced by 
stern necessity, having no money to buy food or 
clothing for my family, I had ventured around the 
spurs of the Himalayas from l^ynee Tal, on hearing 
that Delhi was captured and a bank once more opened 
at Mussoorie, where I could sell a bill on London 
which I had, and thus supply our wants. As I then 
passed round through Gurhwal, the great valley full in 
view five or six thousand feet below was still overrun 
by the Sepoys, and the country between Delhi and 
Allahabad was nearly all in the hands of the forty 
thousand of them who had fled from Delhi when the 
little English force had captured it in September. We 
reached Mussoorie in safety, and descended into the 
valley of the Doon, anxious to reach the road to Delhi. 
Here I received one morning a note from General Eck- 
ford, of the English army, who had heard of our 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 237 

coming, wishing me to stop and give them one or 
two sermons. We followed his messenger, and when 
near his residence he came out to receive us. He 
looked exceedingly liappj^, and stepped forward, and 
before a personal salutation of any kind could be 
uttered, the glad thought which was filling his soul so 
full that morning found expression. Taking mj 
hand in his and looking me in the face, the old 
Christian soldier exclaimed, " Thirty-four years ago 
this day, sir, God, for Christ's sake, converted my 
soul and pardoned all my sins ! How do you do ? " 
The reader will easily understand how quickly we 
were at home with this devoted Episcopalian. We 
remained three days, and held several services with 
his circle of good people. On our departure the 
general furnished me with letters of introduction to 
his son and son-in-law, then in Delhi, which opened 
our way and proved of very great value to us, as the 
sequel will show. 

Through this narrow path, from Mussoorie by the 
Doon to Delhi, we had found our way into this 
center, to the surprise of our military friends, who 
were holding the city and conducting these trials, 
and waiting for the troops from England, by whose 
assistance they were to go forth to clear the country 
of the, mutineers a few months later. The only way 
then for letters, or for communication with the su- 
preme government at Calcutta, was to send up by the 
Punjab, thence down by the Indus to Bombay, and 



238 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

on round all India, requiring many weeks to send or 
receive letters. It thus came to pass that I was in 
the imperial city at such a time to see the Moguls 
bidding 

"A long farewell to all" their "greatness." 

My military friends had secured me a permit to go 
anywhere, and to see any thing that was to be seen, 
in the captured city. 

What most of all interested me in Delhi were the 
trials then proceeding in the Dewanee-Khass. Men 
that sat on thrones twelve months before, and their 
imperial master, were here awaiting their trial and 
doom for the rapine and murder committed by them, 
or in their name, upon Christian men, women, and 
children. It was one of the most vivid pictures of 
the judgment-day of the great God that has ever 
been seen, to behold these criminals of the highest 
class and order of society brought to account as 
though they were common men. Of course, the 
emperor's case transcended every thing else. But of 
this I have given elsewhere, as intimated, a full 
account. Let us come now to the great fact that has 
led us here. On the day in question I was in the 
Dewanee-Khass witnessing this "great assize," and 
became very tired standing so long on the polished 
marble floor. There was not an unoccupied seat in 
the apartment. Indeed, no seat belonged to the 
room, save the throne, as no one ever sat down 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 239 

there except the emperor himself. The seats and 
table for the use of the commission conducting the 
trials had been provided, but were all occupied. 'No 
provision was made for spectators, nor were there any 
there to be accommodated. I was the only outsider in 
the apartment. Wearied out at length with this long 
standing, I had to settle the question whether I 
would give up the great opportunity of seeing such 
a sight, or retire to where I could sit down and rest. 
Anxious to remain, I tried to endure the difficulty a 
little longer. But the endurance soon came to an 
end, for the "necessity that knows no law" had 
come upon me ; something must be done, or I should 
sink down from sheer exhaustion. I gave a question- 
ing glance at the splendid seat, no more to be occupied 
by its imperial master, and wondered if I might dare 
step forward and occupy it ! But the presumption 
of thinking whether I might sit on the throne of the 
great Mogul, and in such a presence, too ! Well, on 
reflection, it did not seem such a dreadful impropriety 
after all. I knew that the throne and its former 
occupant were, just then, at a great discount there ; 
that he was a criminal, and would have no right to 
protest at the sacrilege of an American Republican 
(or any one else), who chose to take the venture, 
occupying his seat for the time being, nor did I sup- 
pose, all things considered, that the gentlemen of the 
court would order me to vacate it ; so, gathering all 
my resolution to take the responsibility anyhow, up 



24:0 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

I walked and sat down upon it! The thing was 
done. There were a few glances and a quiet smile 
here and there among the gentlemen of the commis- 
sion, and a sad and wondering glance from the 
Kawab of Bullubghur, the prince then on trial, 
right in front, but nothing more. So I rested down 
into the quiet convection that my temerity had cost 
me nothing, and that the seat was a very good one, 
and a great relief from the keen distress of standing 
there so long. It may be that I am the only Meth- 
odist preacher who has sat upon a real throne. We 
sing at home, and I indorse the sentiment as heartily 
as ever, after having tried the great experiment for 
some hours, that 

" I'd rather be the least of those 

Who are the Lord's alone, 
Than wear a royal diadem 

And sit upon a throne." 

The "diadem" I did not wear, though I saw those 
of the Delhi princes in the durbar at Benares, twelve 
months before ; but the throne 1 did sit upon. 

2. Yet, as I sat there, I was soon as far as a man need 
be from any personal vanity or self-assertion. A won- 
derful condition of thought and feeling came stealing 
over me, solemn and religious. Losing sight, for the 
time, of the trial and the prisoners, something within 
(perhaps it was my own mind lifted up and enlight- 
ened beyond any former experience) began to question 
and suggest, until I Avas most wondrously impressed 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 241 

with tlie lesson and significance of the situation, and 
became most anxious to understand its bearing and 
purpose. I asked myself, " Is not this the hand of 
God in human history? What means this overthrow 
of one of earth's greatest dynasties ? And what sliall 
be the end of these things ? What purpose is the 
Almighty working out by this amazing ' overturn,' 
and the facts associated therewith ? " 

To me individually these questions had a peculiar 
and personal significance. I had been doomed to be 
hung, with my wife and children, eight months before, 
because we were Christian missionaries, by a lieuten- 
ant of this very emperor. Khan Bahadur, the rebel 
nawab of Eohilcund. He did hang — on a gallows at 
the Kotwalee at Bareilly — and then gave their bodies 
np to insult and degradation, fifteen of njy Christian 
neighbors, civil and military officers of the English 
government, including Judge Robertson, who had en- 
tertained us until we obtained and furnished a house, 
which house Khan Bahadur's Sepoys burned, with all 
tliat it contained, including my library, on the same 
day. They also beheaded Maria, the first female 
member that joined our Church in India. How, 
almost by a miracle, we escaped the hands of this 
"bloody man," is narrated in full in The Land of 
the Yeda. And now, here I was, alive and well, in 
the very palace of the fanatical emperor who had 
ordered our death, as well as that of all our class ; 

yes, here I was, quietly sitting on his throne, while 
16 



242 Fbom Boston to Baeeilly. 

he was a prisoner and a criminal, to be tried for his 
life, and I permitted to be present ! Had I been in 
that court eight months ago, or any day for nearly 
six months after, how different would our relative 
circumstances have been ! I should not have been 
sitting; he would have sat, and I would have had 
to stand and take my doom as it felL from his lips. 
What our sentence would have been was too terribly 
illustrated in many sad cases to allow me to doubt 
as to its terrible character. In this presence how 
fully I realized it all ! 

But then, merely personal relations to the circum- 
stances soon passed away from my consideration, and 
something far more important took their place. As I 
sat there my mind seemed lifted up to a view of our 
mission, its requirements, and its future, beyond any 
thing of which I had been previously conscious. 
Successive aspects of it seemed to pass before my 
view with wonderful clearness and connection, and a 
strong conviction of the power and adequacy of God 
to meet all its rising wants shed its confidence over 
my soul. It seemed one of the most exalted occa- 
sions of my life, and I yielded myself entirely to its 
influence. In attempting to describe its most im- 
portant manifestation, I cannot communicate to my 
readers, by any power of the pen, an adequate idea of 
the clearness of view and assurance of divine assist- 
ance which was given me in that hour. But I will 
indicate as I can its leading aspects. The one hun- 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 243 

dred tlioiisand Sepoys who had risen at this man's 
instigation, to work his will, in the interest of the 
cruel creed of " the False Prophet," against Christ 
and his people, and to extinguish, if thej could, our 
holy religion forever from the soil of India, had been 
met by feeble Christian forces at Cawnpore, Lucknow, 
and Delhi, and been dashed back defeated. Yet 
they were still defiant and determined, and were then 
raging over the country — our own mission field being 
yet entirely in their hands. But I knew that prep- 
arations were being made, and additional forces were 
hurrying out from England, and that soon movable 
columns would be on their track, hunting them down, 
in the interest of the public peace and safety. The 
results could not be doubtful. They would be over- 
thrown, until two of them would not be left together 
to do further harm. Those who survived would not 
dare venture to return to their homes — and those 
homes were largely in our own mission-field — because 
the regimental rolls would suffice for their identifica- 
tion and punishment. What was to become of their 
children, thus left orphans and desolate ? 

Again, this sorrow would be intensified by the 
famine that was sure to follow the rebellion. The 
land would be thrown out of cultivation by the war 
and the plunder of the Sepoys in order to live — for 
men would not sow w^here they saw no prospect of 
reaping during the coming year — and thus, upon tens 
of thousands of the poor, who had taken no part 



244: Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

in this great military mutiny, the coming famine 
would fall with fearful weight. Our mission-field, 
then without roads or railways to arrest or mitigate 
the calamity, would feel the infliction most. So, it 
was likely that, within twelve or fifteen months, thou- 
sands of destitute orphans — many of them the sons 
and daughters of the Sepoy race — would be left in 
misery and starvation within reach of our own hands. 
The question then rose, whether we should get ready 
and be prepared to avail ourselves of the ojpjportunity 
to take up a number of these children, and not only 
save their lives, but also train them in the knowledge 
of Him who died for them, with the expectation that 
they would become, especially in this feeble com- 
mencement of our mission, the very helpers — male 
and female — that we so much required in our work 
for the evangelization of the valley of the Ganges ? 

Then there came up before my mind, to complete 
the picture, the vision or foresight of the churches 
and congregations and schools of the early future — 
the college, the theological seminary, and the cult- 
ured native agents, men and women, that would, in 
the better days to come, carry this blessed cause 
through that valley and over the land in Gospel 
power. But its brightest feature was the oppor- 
tunity which was involved for woman, and which 
would hereby be developed to give Christianity a 
social life — the family power — to become the cult- 
ured helpmeets of our future teachers and preachers, 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 245 

and resulting in the introduction of the female ele- 
ment into our congregations, and the rolling back of 
those threats and exultation of the heathen over us. 
What a glorious vision it was, and in such a place ! 

As it bodied itself forth before my mind, and be- 
came to me as real as something that could almost be 
touched now, and would all become glorious fact ere 
long, my thoughts turned to the question, " How can 
this be done ? If God is going to give us the oppor- 
tunity, how are we to stand prepared to avail our- 
selves of it and turn it to account ? " Without hesita- 
tion, I assumed it could be done ; that the Church at 
home would stand by me if I called on them for assist- 
ance, and enabled them to see the necessity and oppor- 
tunity that were coming within our reach for meeting 
the great emergency of our new work. I felt sure 
that the women of Methodism would respond for 
the portion of the scheme which especially contem- 
plated the rescue and redemption of their own sex, 
in the hope that, by their aid and sympathy, would 
be furnished the very agency by which missionary 
ladies could yet make their influence felt in the 
homes of India for the salvation of their benighted 
sisters. l!^or was I insensible to the difficulties in the 
way of these glowing possibilities. I saw clearly 
what would have to be overcome in order to realize 
this aggregate of good, and yet was aware that I 
knew not how the obstacles could be removed ; only 
I felt persuaded that, while God's plans were not yet 



246 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

fully intimated, I liad only to trust and wait, satisfied 
that he was here suggesting, and would surely guide 
the whole matter to his own blessed conclusion. 

I sat there and saw the seal of infamy and doom be- 
ing judicially stamped on the forehead of this Oriental 
representative of "the Arabian Antichrist," whose 
blasphemous system had dared, wherever their sword 
had power, during the past twelve hundred years, 
deliberately and remorselessly, and in the name of 
Almighty God, to degrade woman, and nowhere with 
more terrible success than in India. Their Koran, 
to consummate this degradation, denies the wife (no 
matter how faithful or subordinate) a partnership in 
immortality, and even provides a substitute for her 
in the " Houris " of the carnal heaven, which Moham- 
med taught his followers to expect. Such are wom- 
an's wrongs, in time and in eternity, from this system 
of sensuality. And now, with the cup of their in- 
iquity full, and the patience of heaven exhausted, 
and outraged humanity demanding their overthrow, 
here was the imperial head of this system, with his 
house and confederates, sinking out of sight never to 
rise again. But I felt that the justice of God would 
not be complete unless the tyranny of the system 
should follow its representative. Both must sink — 
and all kindred systems with them — ere woman was 
avenged and her emancipation complete. 

In whose name and by what agency should this 
blessed change and redemption be commenced and 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 247 

finally wrought out for her was then presented to my 
mind, and the answer was at hand. In that name 
which this man execrated and denied, as " the Son of 
the living God," blaspheming his divinity and butch- 
ering his ministers, and Christian ladies, even under 
his own palace roof : — in that name — that " Prince of 
■the kings of the earth " — even He " that liveth, and 
was dead," and is " alive for evermore ; and " who hath 
" the keys of hell and of death : " — yes, how manifest 
it was that that " King of kings " had come in judg- 
ment upon this antichristian king, and had doomed 
him and his dynasty to be " ground to powder." 
The military commission was merely the instrument 
of God Almighty's will, and some of them, at least, 
were conscious of it. This sin and this suffering 
were to be ended because woman's great Friend and 
Saviour had appeared for her rescue. 

British arms might abolish thrones, annihilate sov- 
ereignties, overthrow great armies and combinations, 
and give rest and peace to a bleeding land ; but, all 
that done, there remained to be accomplished a might- 
ier conquest which their swords could not achieve; a 
victory to be won which required a far different agency 
for its consummation. That agency was woman — the 
very creature whom the falling system had degraded 
so deeply, and whom her Lord and Saviour was about 
to call to the work — a work which she only could do. 
Her gentle hand, her beautiful example, her Chris- 
tian teaching, were to be the powerful ministry to 



248 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

prostrate tlie results of this vindictive system in tlie 
dust, and lead out her wronged and benighted sister- 
hood from their bondage and their sins to become the 
free, the enlightened, and exalted "daughters of the 
Lord Almighty." 

What has already been accomplished in this direc- 
tion, after twenty-five years, and the far-reaching re- 
sults which spread out before us so hopefully, we 
shall soon see at Bareilly. I believe I was led here 
for a purpose, and divinely aided on behalf of our 
mission. To me this was the place and the hour that 
my divine Lord had chosen in which the idea, not 
only of an orphanage for our mission, but also of a 
Woman's Missionary Society for our work gener- 
aJly, should come w^ith a practical power to my 
mind so decided, that never from this hour of its in- 
ception have I hesitated to go right on with confi- 
dence, assured that every obstacle to its development 
would be removed as we came to it, and that God 
would consummate our hopes under the persuasion 
that " the set time to* favor her had come." Here, 
then, the precious thought and purpose were born, and 
here the first eft'ort for both was made. They had 
no merely human authorship. They were originated 
by the divine suggestion. In this Dewanee-Khass 
the first exposition of them was written, and from 
this went forth the earliest of those appeals which 
were afterward so deeply to touch the hearts of cult- 
ured women in America's Christian homes, leading 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 249 

them to send us the means, or come themselves, to help 
•QS to educate those orphan girls, and to carry the holy 
Gospel into those zenana homes, at that time so jeal- 
ously closed against us. The remaining links neces- 
sary for the divine purpose would soon be united 
with those already prepared, and when all were com- 
plete those doors would be providentially opened, 
and from that hour onward Christianity was to wit- 
ness what was long ago foretold concerning the di- 
vine mission to be conferred upon " the daughters of 
Zion." 

The glorified Messiah was to need heralds suited 
in sex to the seclusion which onlj^ they could pene- 
trate, in order to convey to those desolate ones whom 
Satan had so long held in darkness, the joyful mes- 
sage of salvation. The Holy Spirit was to inspire 
these daugliters of the Church with courage, as tliey 
went forth to proclaim to those who " had no hope," 
and were " without God in the world," that their 
Redeemer had come to save them. Victory was 
to be assured to them. Before these gentle but effi- 
cient heralds, reigning and powerful systems of re- 
sistence would be terrified and flee away ; while the 
mothers in Israel, who sent them forth and sus- 
tained them, were to participate in the glad results. 
]Ror was the prediction to be interpreted of past events 
— for all its verbs are in the present tense. It belongs 
to the Church of the ascended Messiah (verse 18), and 
expresses the Christian victories to be won by the 



250 Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

female agency of that Cliurcli a's thev announce the 
glad tidings of his coming kingdom, and also the joy 
of thoae " at home," who were to share in the tri- 
umphs of this " great host " of female evangelists. 

The warrant and the result are given by Jehovah 
of Hosts, in the sacred Hebrew, on this wise : 

" The Lord giveth the word ; 

The women that publish the tidings are a great host. 

Kings of armies flee, they flee : 

And she t-iat tarrieth at home divideth the spoil." 

Psa. Ixviii, 11, 12, {Revised Version.) 

As I dwelt upon the prospect and its possibilities 
my mind became exclusively occupied with the sub- 
ject ; the trial, the prisoners, and the surrounding cir- 
cumstances seemed to become of little importance 
compared with the new and precious ideas that had 
now taken possession of my heart. The impulse 
grew strong to communicate to those who could aid 
me what I saw and felt so clearly ; so I drew my note 
book from my pocket, and there and then sketched 
out the coming opportunity and my appeal. That 
original letter now lies before me. It was sent to 
Dr. Durbin, to be published in our Church papers. 
I will be excused in quoting the introductory sen- 
tences and the substance of that letter : 

"The King's Palace, Delhi, Dec. 20, 1857. 

" Eev. J. P. DuRBm, D.D. : 

" My Dear Doctor : How wonderful it seems to 
pass from the conditions of weary fugitives, subject 



From Bostoit to Baeeilly. 251 

to constant alarm and in danger of our lives, living 
in a cabin on the mountains, with some anxiety as to 
how we were to "keep body and soul together" till 
liberty and relief should reach us — what a transition to 
pass from all this to a position where we rest in a 
king's palace, ride on a royal elephant, see the mul- 
titude salaam before us, and native sentries ' present 
arms ' as we pass ; to have plenty to eat and drink, 
and feel that we are once more in a place of safety, 
with tJiousands of British bayonets ready to preserve 
us from insult and harm. Such is the transition that 
has befallen us. Truly, a wonderful one ! The 
change is the more remarkable from the locality 
where it is realized. In Delhi — only a few weeks 
ago the very focus of treason and cruelty — we move 
about in perfect confidence, our white faces a suffi- 
cient guarantee for the most profound respect every- 
where ! 

" I am writing this communication in no less a 
place than the Dewanee-Khass^ the Heception Hall 
of the ' Great Moguls.' Around me are the splen- 
did emblems of their magnificence: the carved and 
gilded ceilings ; the white marble arches and pil- 
lars, beautifully inlaid in floral designs, the stems and 
leaves and flowers of which are formed of carnelians, 
jasper, chalcedony, and other precious stones. On 
the ground where my feet are resting thousands and 
millions have prostrated themselves in homage before 
the successive incumbents of one of the mi'Thtiost 



252 From Bostoj^ to Baeeilly. 

monarcliies tliat the world ever saw. On my right 
hand sits the ' Military Commission ' for the trial 
of the State prisoners, and there, standing before 
them, is the Bulhibgitrh Rajah on trial for his 
life." 

[I then asked attention to the fact that I had lately 
received bj the mail, at length opened through the 
Punjab and the Indus, a copy of Zio7i's Herald 
giving the full account of the " Farewell Missionary 
Services'' in Bromfield Street, Boston, on the 31st 
of the previous May, where the first two missionaries 
for India, with their wives, were solemnly set apart, 
and so many kind references were made to the sol- 
itary superintendent, who was supposed to be then 
quietly, but safely, awaiting their coming at Bareilly. 
I asked them to note that that was the very day of 
the massacre of Bareilly^ following the more dread- 
ful one here ; days of darkness and sorrow such as 
Christianity had never seen before in the Orient ; 
adding :] 

" How different the scenes and experience of 
that Lord's day to yon and to us ! But let us ac- 
cept the omen ; it is one of good. It bespeaks the 
innate character of both religions, and presages their 
future. The deeds of Bareilly exhibit a faith which 
is doomed to perish, and all the sooner from the re- 
action caused by its own criminality ; while that 
holy and beautiful scene in Bromfield Street 
Church, on the same day, illustrates, in its own prac- 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 253 

tical loveliness and mercy, the religion of our ador- 
able Lord." 

[I then proceeded to draw the attention of the 
brethren and sisters of the Church at home, for 
whom the letter was intended, to the coming retribu- 
tion and the famine that would surely follow, and to 
the orphan children who would be left within our 
own mission field, and gave examples of the great 
advantages which had been reahzed by missions that, 
in other days, had accepted and used such opportuni- 
ties — advantages that would be equally ours, giving 
our mission an advanced position that, without this 
aid, fifty years of toil would not bring to us. Here 
we would find, and find soon, the scholars, church 
members, teachers, and preachers that our work re- 
quired to give it a propitious commencement. The 
possession of those children would yield us at once, 
and under the best circumstances, the means of devel- 
oping the day-school. Sabbath-school, class-meetings, 
and the privileges of Sabbath services. 

[The expense indicated $25 each per annum for 
ten years ; which, with such help as we could ob- 
tain here, would be sufficient to feed, clothe, and 
educate them. I asked each patron to select either 
a male or female child, to whom they could, if 
they desired, give their name, sending the money 
to Dr. Durbin, and concluded the appeal with these 
words :] 

" Here, then, I close. I make my proposition and 



254: Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

appeal to American Methodists on behalf of the little 
outcast ones of those misguided and cruel men, whose 
doom may be sealed, probably, ere this letter can 
reach your shores. I make my appeal from Delhi — 
from this late head-quarters of hatred and cruelty 
against Christ and his people — probably from the 
very apartment where those proclamations were con- 
cocted and issued, which spread for a time such hor- 
ror and woe over these fair provinces. 

" Brethren and sisters, help us to save those poor 
little ones. If you take them, you will think about 
them ; if you pay for them, you will certainly jpray 
for them. God will own and honor your deed of 
Christian mercy, and, at a future day, in many a de- 
lightful instance, when they are converted and happy, 
will ' the blessing of those now ready to perish come 
upon you.' In hope of a generous and prompt re- 
sponse, I remain, dear brethren and sisters, 
" Yours affectionately, 

William Butler." 

l^ext day I wrote another letter to Dr. Durbin, 
earnestly pleading for his sympathy and that of the 
Missionary Board. I informed him, as another evi- 
dence of " the good hand of God over us for good," 
that I had just found H. S. Reid, Esq., Director of 
Public Instruction (Minister of Education for the 
ISTorth-west Provinces), to whom I had a note of in- 
troduction from his father-in-law (the general at 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 255 

whose place I had preached on our way down). It 
was very providential that he should then be in 
Delhi, for, next to our Church and the Board, he 
could help me most in the enterprise which was now 
so near my heart. To my great encouragement he 
received me most cordially, and listened to my entire 
plan. He was kind enough to give it his full sym- 
pathy, and promised me the good-will and assistance 
of the government, under the new rules which had 
just been inaugurated in the form of Grants in Aid 
for Education. 

3. I inquired what these rules were, and then learned 
about that second link which a merciful Providence 
was preparing for our help in the work contemplated. 
The English government had formulated a code of 
education for India, under the designation, " Sir 
Charles Wood's Dispatch on Education," which now 
became law ; and under it all who would educate 
should have " grants in aid," about fifty per cent, of 
the whole expense. It was to be alike available for 
both sexes, and would not interfere with the right of 
religious instruction in any school thus aided. What 
help was here for us ! Our good friend promised 
his utmost assistance. I laid the facts before the 
Board, and closed with these words : " The cost for 
each orphan, including every thing, will be only $25 
a year. $1,000 annually will, therefore, sustain forty 
of them. I ask that much from the Boards and let 
individual liberality add as m.any more as possible. 



256 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

Shall I have this thousand dollars annually ? Be- 
lieve me, we may expect that God will amply repay 
to our society, in converted, intelligent teachers and 
preachers, the sum which I now earnestly entreat you 
to grant, that we may save these perishing children. 
Do let me have your reply as speedily as possible. 
No part of our work will be more interesting and 
hopeful than this. I long for the time when we shall 
have these little ones under our care and instruction, 
and trust that I shall live to see many of them con- 
verted and rejoicing in God." 

I anxiously awaited the answer, and it came almost 
by return of mail, granting all I asked, if the breth- 
ren who were to join me within a few weeks, meeting 
together as a mission, should concur in the proposal, 
which, of course, they did. We thus stood prepared 
for the future, and were ready to act when the hour 
came. A few days afterward another providence 
cheered me. I mef our dear friend. Major (now Gen- 
eral) Gowan, he who had so earnestly warned us to 
fly from Bareilly. On informing him of my plans, 
he surprised me by saying he had the first orphan 
boy ready for me, a fine lad (son of a Sepoy officer) 
whom, a few days before, he had found on the field 
of battle, in great distress for his father, who had 
been killed that day. The benevolent major tried to 
comfort the poor boy, and promised to be a father to 
him. He brought him to his tent, and from that on 
to Meerut, where I met them. He handed him over 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 257 

to me, promising to be at the entire cost of his train- 
ing and education. I was to give him the major's 
own name. He sent me another boy soon after (now 
an ordained elder in our Conference), and provided 
for both. He has given so liberally of his means to 
build up our mission since, that, probably, no one, on 
either side of the Atlantic, has been so generous to our 
work as this devoted Christian gentleman has been. 
So wonderfully did God and his people aid us in this 
enterprise. What it has already accomplished for our 
work in India we shall learn when we reach Bareilly 
and Shahjehanpore, where the orphanages are located ; 
and especially the Girls' Orphanage at Bareilly, which 
has done so much to build up the work of the Parent 
Board, and gives to our mission in I^orth India a 
standing and power that is not equaled to-day by 
any mission of its age in the East. 

As I stood last year in old Delhi, and lived these 
scenes over again, after an interval of twenty-seven 
years since the day when I wrote that letter in the 
Dewanee-Khass, how vividly it all came back to me ! 
How clearly the hand of God was seen in the results 
since accomplished ! Poor old Delhi itself is terribly 
changed for the worse since then. The Chandnee 
Chowk, once so rich and splendid, is shorn of its 
glory, and now presents a beggarly aspect. The 
Jumna Musjid, the great Mohammedan "Cathedral" 
of the East, shares the general decay — the worshipers 

were few, and the entrance was occupied by some of 
17 



258 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

the most loathsome lepers I ever beheld. One of 
them was so unutterably repulsive, I wondered the 
police did not shut him up from human view. The 
poor lad might be about sixteen years of age. His 
body was covered with this awful disease ; his face 
having a pink tinge, and his eyebrows and the hair 
of his head were as "white as snow." It was a sick- 
ening sight ; but there he was permitted to remain, as 
an object of charity, on the steps by which the wor- 
shipers went up to their devotions in that decaying 
structure ! 

The Dewanee-Khass, the superb throne-room of the 
Great Moguls, stands in withering splendor — a gor- 
geous monument which the lightnings of heaven 
have blasted. Instead of the surroundings in which 
it formerly stood, remaining a suitable setting for its 
magnificence, the Khass is now dwarfed by the great 
military buildings which have been erected close to 
it. Sad, indeed, was the ruin, and also the solitude, 
as the occasional passer-by went on, without even 
turning to look at it. The famous couplet above, on 
the architrave, quoted by Moore in Lalla Moohh, 

" And, ! if there be an elysium on earth, 
It is this, it is this ! " 

is still there, a mockery amid the desolation which has 
engulfed them all, showing how truly " their glory, 
their multitude, and their pomp," and he that rejoiced, 
have descended into it; while the holy Christianity, 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 259 

on the destruction of which they madly staked every 
thing, holds to-day in India a higher position than 
ever, and all the higher for their overthrow ! 

We went over to Agra to see once more, and for 
tlie last time, the matchless Taj Mahal. No deterio- 
ration there ! It looked as lovely and pure as ever. 
We visited it in the morning and in the evening 
light, and again at midnight, to gaze upon it under 
the full moon — a different aspect being presented each 
time. No doubt it will be as stainless a hundred 
years hence as it is to-day. It is, perhaps, the only 
monument originated by the Moguls that abides in 
unimpaired beauty and perfection. All the rest — 
even "the Pearl Mosque," not far from it — are 
quietly tending to decay. 'Tis well that the lovely 
Taj was not in any way identified either with their 
cruel and licentious creed or their vicious practice. 
Contrary to the license of his house, and the liberty 
of his Koran, Shah Jehan, its builder, chose not to 
be a polygamist. 

" He loved one only, and was true to her," 

and thus the gifted and beautiful Empress Moomtaj, 
who lies in such splendor under that glorious dome, 
had no competitor in the affections of her husband. 
This matchless gem, the architectural wonder of the 
world, is considered to be a national monument, and 
will be preserved unimpaired, with all its appropriate 
surroundings, as long as England rules India. Coming 



260 From Boston to Bareilly. 

out toward midnight, and taking our last longing 
look at all this loveliness, I ventured to inquire of a 
lady, whose cultured taste I knew I might rely upon, 
whether, in my full description of the To^^ given in 
The Land of the Veda, I had said one word too much 
in its favor. With great emphasis she answered, " O, 
no, no ; it is worthy of it all." The ISTew Jerusalem 
will certainly be more lovely, but it may safely be 
predicted that, up to the hour when that vision of di- 
vine beauty " whose builder and maker is God " is 
seen coming down out of heaven, human eyes will 
never look upon any object more lovely than the Taj 
Mahal of Agra. 

What a change it was, to return again from this 
scene to Delhi ! There is something very distressing 
and solemn in the effect which the view of this Mogul 
desolation exercises upon the mind of the thoughtful 
beholder. It seems as if the finger of God pointed 
out from the mystery around, and said, " This is ray 
retribution to my enemies!" One feels conscious that 
no human hand could have accomplished it. For 
long centuries this great system was supreme, — the 
most powerful, wealthy, and combined of Oriental 
sovereignties, — and was seated in the center of all nat- 
ural resources. Yet this amazing power perished from 
the earth — perished, not of want, for it was wealthy 
to the last ; not of decay of population, or of dry- 
ing up of resources — they were more abundant than 
ever ; did not die of war — for India was never more 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 261 

peaceful than when this dynasty drew the sword, and 
wantonly broke that tranquillity. Why, then, did it 
die ? As the worldling calculates, it had all the ele- 
ments of mortal life — ought to be living now — and 
living on for a thousand years to come. Yet, it is 
absolutely dead ! One is tempted to ask, with indig- 
nation, some of those sneering infidels who can talk 
or write human history without recognizing God, 
" Gentlemen, here is a wonderful case for investiga- 
tion ; it lies there before you, dead from some cause ; 
please account for that dissolution, and tell the world 
in your wisdom how this ghastly death came ; exam- 
ine thoroughly, and make out an honest verdict that 
mankind can believe. We give you ample time and 
unrestricted opportunity, and await your reply." 

We may wait, but it will be in vain. These un- 
candid and prejudiced men will not be honest where 
God is concerned. Sooner than admit His interven- 
tion and government they will slink aw^ay uncom- 
mitted, or else, by some subterfuge or contemptible 
witticism, try to cover their escape from the obli- 
gation of an honest reply w^liich would satisfy the 
judgment of candid men. Even the heathen magi- 
cians of Pharaoh's court had far more candor, and 
yielded to the logic of the facts; giving their de- 
cision in the case submitted to them : " This is the 
finger of God." But over the prostrate form of this 
Oriental dynasty enlightened Christian philosophy 
can hold its inquest, and wdth full reasons, founded in 



262 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

the divine wisdom in history, render its verdict that, 
" It died by the msitation of God.'''' There are some 
things that enter into the life of a dynasty, or a peo- 
ple, to raise it to permanence. The most important 
is the " righteousness which exalteth a nation." The 
absence of this fully accounts for the death we are 
considering — and there never was more terrible evi- 
dence furnished to the world than their history con- 
tains, that "the iniquity of these" Amorites — from 
the king on his throne to the Sodomite in his den — 
became so " full," that " they perished in their own 
corruption " under the awful judgment of a just and 
holy God ! 

The ruin thus called down upon themselves is even 
more terrible in its manifestation than what I have 
yet mentioned. One item more of it may be allowed. 
Perhaps nowhere else on this globe can such a sight 
be seen as that which the traveler beholds strewn all 
around him, going from Delhi to the Kootub. In 
the days gone by those fourteen miles were dotted 
over with the splendid palaces, mosques, mausoleums, 
and memorials of the imperial house and its wealthy 
aristocracy. Here were the " Yersailles " and " Al- 
hambras " of Oriental Mohammedanism. The Kootub 
— the grandest column in the world — rose peerless in 
the center of all this magnificence. The Kootub still 
stands there. Go to its summit, and survey the scene 
around. You never saw such silent and naked deso- 
lation as that circle of twenty miles presents to your 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 263 

view. All is solitude and ruins, amid wliicli tlie 
howls of the hungry jackals and the prowling wolves 
are heard incessantly from early night-fall to the break 
of day. Yet here, within this one view, hundreds of 
millions of the wealth of poor India's toiling people 
have been wasted on extravagances that yield not one 
cent of beneficial result to-day. All sunk in profit- 
less enterprises of pride and vainglory, on which has 
come down a retribution that must be divine, smiting 
the whole with blasting and desolation beyond all 
hope of restoration. [N'ot one of the multitude of 
these once magnificent buildings remains perfect in 
form. There they are, struck and mutilated, as if in 
literal fulfillment of the threatening of the Son of 
God : " He shall rule them with a rod of iron ; as the 
vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers : 
even as I received of my Father." Rev. ii. 27. Here 
we can find an adequate cause for this dreadful deso- 
lation. This Oriental sovereignty identified itself, 
body and soul, with the creed, the spirit and purpose, 
of " The False Prophet," till at length He, whose 
warning vengeance had already expressed itself, heard 
the rampant blasphemy uttered here against the Re- 
deemer and Governor of the world, and saw the un- 
exampled butchery of more than eighteen hundred of 
his people, within that circumference of which Delhi 
was the center. " Then God arose," and that " rod 
of iron " descended with discriminating vengeance, 
and struck the dynasty, and all confederate with 



264 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

it, out of existence forever. And this is the 
result ! 

You turn from the fearful scene, but carry away in 
your soul the reflection that what you have witnessed 
is no freak of nature, no accidental desolation, no slow 
growth of national decline. It is the result of some 
adequate cause. The wideness of the ruin intimates 
a penalty. The extent and completeness of the 
calamity, admitting of no redemption, evidences that 
this is not man's work, but Heaven's vengeance ; and 
the fearful record of guilt which preceded it, shuts 
you up to the conviction that what you have seen are 
" the wages of sin," which a holy God begins to pay 
out, even in this world, upon the body, the soul, the 
surroundings and circumstances of those who dare 
defy his laws. Little does it avail, in any age or in 
any land, that licentious sinners close their ears and 
decline to hear, or even that they choose to scoff at 
human and divine warnings. As sure as the sunrise 
their sins will find them out; and some day, when 
mercy is clear gone, they will have to wake up, as 
these have done, to the terrible consciousness that "God 
is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap." This fearful retribution, falling 
as heavily on the locality as it did on the individuals 
there, reminds one of the doom of the sensualists of 
Sodom and Gomorrah, who " are set forth for an ex- 
ample, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." 

That magnificent Taj^ a few miles off to the south, 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 265 

standing so chaste and lovely in its earthly paradise, 
makes tliis blight, by contrast, all the more fearful. 
There is woman honored, the seventh commandment 
obeyed, and the Taj is the monument of the virtue 
wliich God has crowned. Here is the reverse. 
AYoman wronged, the seventh commandment out- 
raged in its entire spirit and purpose, while old Delhi 
lies scorched under divine vengeance. " It is a fear- 
ful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." 

Wicked men in high and low life may sneer at these 
lessons, and at the doctrine of the Second Psalm, as 
having little to do with national life and accounta- 
bility ; yet this humble page may live long enough 
to illustrate the Christian conviction that there is no 
fact of the coming future more certain than that every 
remaining organized portion of this "mystery of in- 
iquity," wherever found (in Utah, in Turkey, or else- 
where), which dishonors woman and insults the Lord 
Christ and his holy law, shall as surely meet their day 
of accountability as these crowned and powerful ene- 
mies of both did in India in 1857-8, when that burn- 
ing indignation left them " neither root nor branch." 

4. Before we depart from this city of Delhi, I wish 
to ask attention to a group of facts such as my read- 
ers may find it difficult to parallel in the range of hu- 
man history for hostility to Christianity, and for the 
condign punishment with which the Almighty visited 
the guilt and overthrew the purposes of their origi- 
nators. This court had relation to every one of them ; 



266 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

tliey have all occurred in our own day ; and the very 
existence of our mission was involved in the results. 
What makes it more marked is, that the punishment 
bore just proportion to the transgression. Where that 
guilt included the shedding of Christian blood, the 
vengeance was heaviest and most marked, amounting, 
in such cases, to the annihilation of each party, and 
the complete extinguishment of their power and in- 
fluence in India ; and also in so counter-working their 
purposes that their very wrath was made to praise 
God and advance his cause. 

Five names were, a short time ago, among the most 
prominent in India for wealth, power, and opposition 
to the religion of the Son of God. One was a ]^a- 
wab, another a King, another a Peishwa, another an 
Emperor, and the fifth a Maharajah. Only one of 
these is living, and this he owes entirely to the fact 
that the English removed him in time out of the way 
of the danger which swept all the rest and their power 
away forever. 

The IN^awab, Khan Bahadur, stood nearest to us, 
being a resident at Bareilly, where he was deputy 
judge. His hypocrisy was equal to his cruelty. 
While he was trying to throw the English ofiicers 
off their guard, with the assurance that the Sepoys 
there would not rise — and that, even if they did, no 
harm should come to us, as he would protect us — he 
bad in his pocket, from the Emperor of Delhi, the 
sunnud (or patent) constituting him Nawab of 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 267 

Rohilcund. Yet, on the 31st of May, when the 
mutiny broke out, he arrested and hanged fifteen of 
the English gentlemen on a gallows at the Kat- 
walee of Bareilly, including his own superior officer, 
Judge Kobertson. By this cruel man, myself, wife, 
and children were condemned to suffer the same 
fate. How we escaped out of his hands is narrated 
elsewhere. But how wonderful it was that I should 
be brought round to Bareilly from Delhi, some time 
after, to see him a prisoner, and witness his trial 
and condemnation. That, in company with Brother 
Humphrey, I should visit him in prison, and urge 
upon him the acceptance of the mercy which even 
a penitent murderer might obtain from the merciful 
Saviour. But all in vain. He hated the very name 
of Jesus. I saw him taken to his death (on the spot 
where he executed the Christians two years before) 
exulting that he had " had the satisfaction of killing 
the Christian dogs, and would kill as many more 
again if he only had the power!" Such was the 
IS^awab of Rohilcund, and these were his last words 
on earth. But of what avail was all his blasphemy 
and rage and cruelty against Christ and Christians ! 
Divine justice swept him from the earth, and made 
his doom such a warning to his co-religionists that 
those fanatics have trembled under the lesson, and a 
divine protection has been thrown over the lives of 
the followers of Christ — native and foreign, male and 
female — such as India never saw before. 



268 Feom Boston to Baeetlly. 

The next conspicuous name is tliat of the Moham- 
medan King of Oude. His antecedents, and espe- 
cially his hatred of Christianity, show that, had he 
remained in power, he would probably have united 
his energies with his neighbor, Khan Bahadur, and 
the two could, no doubt, have swept out of the Gan 
getic valley every vestige of Christian life or influ- 
ence. In this case Lucknow might never have been 
"relieved," the Besidency liave shared the fate of 
Cawnpore, and their common master, the Emperor 
of Delhi, have been sustained. One trembles at the 
idea of what this would have involved to Christianity 
and English rule ; what thousands would have been 
added to the eighteen hundred victims of Mohammed- 
an cruelty, or the long years of conflict and suffer- 
ing requisite to recover the ground which civiliza- 
tion and Christianity had lost. It would have given 
Mohammedanism a distinct and terrible victory over 
Christianity, with a greater power than ever in India, 
and placed the two hundred millions of Hindus 
more completely at their mercy, without any control 
to appeal to for protection against them. There 
has lately appeared a volume, by an English civil 
officer {Tlie Garden of India, by H. C. Irwin), which 
justifies, to my mind, the fear that no other result 
could be expected, had this corrupt government of 
the king continued only one year longer. But the 
'' annexation " of Oude to British territory, and the 
removal of the king to Calcutta, on the pension of 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 269 

his rank, in the spring of 1856, was jnst in time to 
save him from committing himself to the cause of 
the Delhi emperor. His hands were thus kept 
from being stained with Christian blood; and so, 
instead of filling a criminal's grave to-day, after 
inflicting fearful injury, he lives, and has his title 
and his pay, but still following that foolish and sin- 
ful life so graphically described by his American 
secretary, formerly referred to. 

The third personage is the Peishwa, ITana Sahib. 
This matchless monster (whose fearful career I have 
presented in The Land of the Veda) aimed to 
combine all the influence of his peculiar position, 
with the objects of the emperor, in the overthrow of 
Christianity. His proclamations and massacres, in 
carrying out his purposes, show what he was capable 
of doing had they only succeeded. But that "good 
soldier of Jesus Christ," Henry Havelock, met and 
overthrew this cruel pagan, drove him into Rohil- 
cund, where he made his last stand at Bareilly, aiding 
Khan Bahadur, and where Havelock's men, following 
him up, had another dash at him. His forces fled, 
and he went rushing through Philibeet into the 
depths of the Oude forest, never to be seen again by 
mortal eye. There that murderer of Christian 
women and children met his fate in one of the 
ravines under Nepaul. Probably the "Boyal Bengal 
Tigers," which abound in that vicinity, closed the 
career of this wretched man. Only this form of 



270 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

death was likely there, and no doom could be more 
dreadful. We can imagine him, as he there reached 
his last hour ; all hope and help gone, alone in the 
dreadful Terai, crouching by his last lire, which he is 
no longer able to replenish, while the watching and 
impatient brute that has tracked him draws nearer, 
till, in full sight now, with their terrific roar and sure 
spring, he seizes the pampered maharajah of Bithoor 
as his prey ! The l^ana earned and received the title 
of " The Tiger of Bithoor,'' and if the above intima- 
tions were realized (as seems probable), he might well 
say in the awful hour to which he was brought, as 
was said by Adoni-bezek, " As I have done, so God 
has requited me ! " 

The judgment of the Emperor was next in order. 
He was tried, and, after a patient investigation, found 
guilty of all the charges, and w^as sentenced (not to 
death, on account of his rank) but, to transportation 
for life. It was a fearful penalty to pass from a throne 
to the deck of a convict ship, to close his life in a for- 
eign land. Burmah was chosen as the place. There 
he died in 1861. Five years after witnessing his trial 
I visited his lonely grave behind the Quarter Guard 
of the British regiment at Rangoon — within " The 
Golden Chersonese " of Ptolemy, quoted from Milton 
on my title-page — and saw how the tropical rains 
were leveling down to obliteration the little mound, 
unmarked by a single stone, which covered the dis- 
honored dust of this imperial blasphemer of the Son 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 271 

of God and persecutor of his people ! The only one 
of his race without a gorgeous monument over liim. 
But no Taj or Mausoleum will ever rise above the 
spot where rests, solitary and alone, on a foreign shore 
and in a felon's grave, the last descendant of the 
Great Moguls ! In such a scene, and with all its 
terrible recollections around me, how appropriate 
seemed the words, " So let all thine enemies perish, 
O Lord : but let them that love him be as the sun 
when he goeth forth in his might ! " 

The fifth, in this group of enemies of the divine 
Redeemer, was the Maharajah Kunjeet Singh, sov- 
ereign of the Punjab. This turbulent adventurei*, 
who had carved out with his sword the empire of the 
^YG rivers (as the word Punjab means) by making 
war on his weaker neighbors, and then annexing their 
dominions, was as unscrupulous and despotic a char- 
acter as can be found even in India history. At the 
age of seventeen he had his own mother assassinated, 
as she stood in the way of his ambition. " Lahore of 
Great Mogul " he seized and made his capital, and 
then annexed Cashmere and several surroundins: 
States. He thus artfully, yet with great tact, built 
himself up at the expense of both emperor and the 
chiefs around him, and became so powerful that all 
feared him. 

Circumstances soon afterward brouo^ht the Delhi 
emperor, Shah Shooja, across the boundary into Pun- 
jeet Singh's dominions ; and, suspecting no treachery, 



272 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

lie had brought his family and part of his treasure 
with him. They were affably received, a palace 
placed at their service, and royal hospitality tendered. 
In a day or two Runjeet learned that the imj)erial 
family had the famous Koh-i-noor diamond with 
them. At once his cupidity was aroused and his 
measures taken ; the palace was surrounded by his 
guards, and the unfortunate emperor was coolly told 
that as soon as the diamond was surrendered to Run- 
jeet their meals would be served, but not one morsel 
till that was done ! They held out till the morning 
of the third day, when some of the ladies were at the 
point of death, ere the gem was given up. It thus 
became the possession of " the Lion of the Punjab," 
as Runjeet was then called. He had lost one eye in 
battle, and his fancy was, on state occasions, to bal- 
ance the good eye by the brilliant diamond on the 
other side of his brow, and thus presented a whimsi- 
cal and ograish aspect, that amazed those who looked 
at him. He was utterly ignorant — could neither read 
nor write — and was as intolerant and bigoted as he 
was illiterate. He was sustained in his despotism by 
a European adviser, who has a heavy account to ren- 
der before God. Their resolution was formed that, 
whoever entered the Punjab, Jesus Christ should 
not ! An oath is said to have been sworn that "no 
missionary should ever cross the Sutlej " — the eastern 
boundary line between Bunjeet's dominions and the 
English territory. So determined was the old sinner 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 273 

that the recent measures passed by the British govern- 
or-general, Lord William Bentinck, for the suppres- 
sion of suttee^ should be treated with contempt so far 
as he was concerned, that he made express provision 
in his will that the ancient custom should be fully 
and ostentatiously observed and carried out in con- 
nection with his own funeral ceremonies. I have the 
description of the fearful scene from the pen of a 
German gentleman who was physician to Runjeet 
Singh, and witnessed the entire ceremony. The doc- 
tor says that the suttee was conducted on such a scale 
of magnificence as to cost several hundred thousand 
dollars. The maharajah had named eleven of his 
wives (four queens and seven concubines) who were 
to burn with his body, the youngest being only fif- 
teen years of age ! 

I need not give the dreadful details of this pro- 
gramme, which was strictly carried out. If Eunjeet 
Singh died with the hope that his " high example " 
would tend to the restoration of this infernal practice 
of burning living women with their husband's dead 
bodies, he never made a greater mistake. God had 
something to say and do in this matter, and his " set 
time had come " to do it. He withdrew his restrain- 
ing providence from the successors of this wicked 
man, and in nine years they had rushed on to their 
own destruction. India looked across the Sutlej, and 
saw a scene of carnage and destruction in the Punjab 

the equal of which has seldom been witnessed among 
18 



274 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

men. The four successors of Runjeet — Kurruck 
Singh, 'Nosi Nihal Singh, Sheir Singh, and Protal — 
were each murdered within a few months of ascend- 
ing the throne. The queen regent, Chund Kunwar, 
was also assassinated. The four prime ministers — 
Dhyan Singh, Grulal Singh, Jawahir Singh, and Ilira 
Singh — were all murdered in succession, and while in 
office ! In the greatness of their folly the Sikhs 
twice crossed the Sutlej to invade British India. The 
first time they were whipped back again ; but, on the 
second occasion, the decisive victory of Gujarat, on 
the 21st of February, 1849, overthrew the Sikhs, 
abolished their mad government, and the Punjab was 
permanently annexed to British India. Then came 
a peace which has never since been disturbed. 

The little boy sovereign, Dhuleep Singh, the last 
child of Runjeet Singh (then nine years old), was 
taken under British protection, and intrusted for edu- 
cation to the care of Sir John Logan, of Futtyghur 
(a devout Presbyterian physician). So ended an em- 
pire that was founded in blood and rapine. "What 
became of that " oath " which was to exclude Chris- 
tianity from Western India, and that " royal exam- 
ple " which was to restore the horrors of the suttee ? 

Let "US recognize the hand of God in this history, 
also, and see how he can make " the wrath of man" 
to praise him, and restrain the remainder. England 
is in India for higher purposes than those contem- 
plated by such of her representatives as do not " fear 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 275 

God and work righteousness." But her " devout 
men " there, in the civil and military services, recog- 
nize the higher mission that she has to fulfill, and 
freely give their influence and their money to push 
forward the work of the enlightenment and evangeli- 
zation of the millions whom they govern. While 
such work is being fostered under their administra- 
tion God will take care of British rule in India, for, 
whatever its faults and failings, it is fulfilling his 
own blessed purposes. ^Now for the lessons in this 
case. 

Had Runjeet Singh been permitted to live to 
carry out his intentions, or the Sikh nation retained 
autonomy eight years longer than 1849, where would 
British India be to-day ? There can hardly be a 
doubt but that, in 1857, the Sikhs would have joined 
the Delhi emperor, and their aid would have been 
ample, united with the Sepoy army and directed by 
the Mohammedan power, to sweep Christianity from 
India before a soldier from England could reach the 
country. This is what might have been, and proba- 
bly would have been, except for the Divine foresight 
and intervention. Instead of this result Providence 
arranged for the annexation of the Punjab, and the 
neutralization, of all their power for evil. And more, 
God had his chosen instruments ready for the emer- 
gency. John Lawrence was installed in power as 
the ruler of the Sikh nation, and such was the be- 
nign effect of his Christian administration over even 



2Y6 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

that turbulent race, that, at the end of seven years, 
when the Sepoys rose in 1857, instead of joining 
them, the Sikhs responded to Lawrence's call, and 
went by the thousand to Delhi, ranging themselves by 
the side of the little English force of five thousand 
men, and helping them to take that strong city in 
September, even before one British regiment had 
time to reach Delhi from England. 

^or is this all. How different now would be the 
tenure of British authority in India had not the Pun- 
jab been annexed, and its brave people won to Christian 
rule ! If the narrow Sutlej were to-day the British 
frontier against Russian aggression instead of Afghan- 
istan and the Khyber Pass, what solicitude and 
even fear would trouble the souls of the rulers of 
India ! But the annexation of 1849 carried back 
that frontier three hundred miles west. Had not 
this been done, with Cabul conquered, the Punjab 
captured, and the armies of the Russian autocrat ad- 
vanced three hundred miles into the Indus valley ere 
touching British territory, how different would be 
the situation from what it is to-day, when the tallest 
mountains on the earth, and the narrow and easily de- 
fended Khyber Pass, shut out so effectually the only 
foe which England needs to fear in the. East ! 

Again, instead of suttee being restored by the 
example of the maharajah, the attempt became a 
horror, and the native principalities ranged them- 
selves ever since more loyally by the side of the par- 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 277 

amount power to forbid and extinguish this crime 
forever in British India. 

Of course the Punjab, under Sir John Lawrence, 
was thrown open to Christianity. What high ground 
he took upon this matter his words attest, and what 
honors of success and peace did the Ahnighty put 
upon the head of this grand, God-fearing ruler! 
Were ever words uttered more worthy of a Christian 
hero than those which Sir John Lawrence wrote at 
Lahore, in a state paper issued when Delhi fell? 
Those words are : 

" All measures which are really and truly Chris- 
tian can be carried out in India, not only without 
danger to British rule, but, on the contrary, with ev- 
ery advantage to its stability. Christian things done 
in a Christian way will never alienate the heathen. 
About such things there are qualities which do not 
provoke nor excite distrust, nor harden to resistance. 
It is when unchristian things are done in the name 
of Christianity, or when Christian things are done in 
an unchristian way, that mischief and danger are oc- 
casioned. Measures of Christian duty will arouse no 
danger — will conciliate instead of provoke — and 
will subserve the ultimate diffusion of the truth 
among the people." 

The Sutlej was " crossed " by Christian mission- 
aries. Lahore and the leading cities of the Punjab 
were occupied, chiefly by our American Presbyterian 
brethren, and success soon crowned their labors. So 



278 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

far had thej progressed by Christmas, 1862, that 
they invited the missionaries of North India to hold 
their General Conference with them in the capital of 
the Punjab. We went, " crossed the Sutlej," and 
entered Lahore, and, to our surprise, found the ar- 
rangements for holding the Conference were made 
in a building right opposite the magnificent mauso- 
leum where repose the cremated remains of Runjeet 
Singh and his eleven wives. During the week we 
went over, and, standing round the urn under the 
dome, we sung cur Christian doxology over his dust. 
In the photograph group of that Conference the cen- 
tral figure is the Rajah of Kuppurthulla, the Punjab 
having the honor of furnishing the first Christian 
prince in India. By his side stand several of those 
English soldiers and civilians whose prudence and 
valor saved the Punjab. 

Yet all this, so wonderful, was but a part of our 
divine Saviour's answer to Runjeet Singh. His son, 
Dhuleep Singh, whom he never saw (for the child was 
born a few weeks after his father's cremation), the 
last and only heir to his throne, was saved from the 
carnage which swept away all the rest of his family. 
This boy grew up, in circumstances of peace and 
safety, under his tutor. Sir John Logan, and was led 
by the reading of the Holy Scriptures to the reception 
of Christianity. His tutor urged him not to press for 
baptism (as he earnestly desired when but seventeen 
years old) until he should become of age, and could 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 279 

freely judge and act for himself. This was done, and 
the maharajah came ont in due time before India, 
and was baptized into the Christian faith. The Koh- 
i-noor — his by inheritance from his father — was sent 
as a present to Queen Victoria, and he himself con- 
cluded to live in England on the pension of his rank 
(made sure to him and his heirs forever), fixing his 
home in a beautiful residence at Twickenham, near 
London. And, further, when I was passing through 
England on mj way home from India, in March last, 
I went out to attend one of the supplementary meet- 
ings of the Moody and Sankey services, held near 
the residence of the maharajah. To my great de- 
light, I was informed that some of the family had 
been attending these services, and the eldest son had 
experienced the saving grace of God. Unwilling to 
trust mere rumor in such a case, I wrote to Dr. Pen- 
tecost, who was assisting Moody and Sankey, and re- 
ceived from him the assurance that my information 
was correct ; the young prince had been converted, 
and had become a zealous worker in the meetings. 
He knew him well, and assured me that I might re- 
joice in the fact. I do and will rejoice, and bow 
down before the sovereign majesty of our divine Re- 
deemer in the presence of this, his own adorable work. 
IS^ot only the son, but also the grandson of " the ma- 
harajah," Runjeet Singh, have become servants of 
our Lord Jesus Christ ! 

To me all this reads like a passage from some un- 



280 Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 

eartlily volume — like a page from tliat book wliich 
contains the hidden mysteries of Almighty God, 
which only "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" is 
worthy to open and unseal. He opens and unseals 
them for the liberation and redemption of our race 
from the tyranny of evil and the power of sin. 
India, long suffering India, is to realize her full and 
perfect portion of this redemption, and is to have her 
glad share in that grand celestial anthem to her new 
Lord and Master : " They sung a new song, saying, 
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the 
seals thereof : for thou w^ast slain, and hast redeemed 
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and 
tongue, and people, and nation." Hev. v, 9. Amen, 
mighty and victorious Christ ! Thou art w^orthy, and 
these are thy opening triumphs in India; and they 
guarantee to thy believing and exultant saints thine 
ultimate victories over all that is diabolical and sinful 
there. 

" Hope of a world condemned, Messiah, hail t 
Nor hell, nor death, shall o'er thy Church prevail ; 
Thy conquering arm the serpent foe shall bind, 
Thy blood redeem, thy scepter rule, mankind." 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 281 



CHAPTEE YII. 

" day of days ! far off its coming shone, 

The hope of ages past; joy of joys, 

To see it come at length ! double joy 

If we have watched, and wept, and toiled, and prayed, 

'Mid the deep darkness of the night of tears, 

To speed the advent of that morn of joy 

Whose sun, once risen, shall never more go down, 

While the Lord God Omnipotent doth reign, 

And the great ages roll, in golden calm. 

Through the high Sabbath of eternity." — Dr. Mitchell. 

We are back again in Lucknow, and about to start 
for Bareilly. The train leaves at nine o'clock P. M. 
Formerly from this to Bareilly took three nights' 
traveling by palanquin. IS^ow we are to roll over the 
entire space in six hours. Leaving at nine P. M. we 
are due there at three o'clock in the morning. 

The moon is at her best, the air is warm, and the 
atmosphere clear — one of those lovely nights in Octo- 
ber not often seen outside of India. 'No wonder Mr. 
Irwin, in describing this valley, entitles his book The 
Garden of India. Bishop Foster and others desig- 
nate it in the same way. The fertility is wonderful. 
Two harvests each year reward the toil of the culti- 
vators ; so that, although the farms are very small, we 
have to remember the compensation which this 
double product yields to the cultivator. 



282 FiioM Boston to Bareilly. 

Wide plains, mostly without a rock or stone, and 
the soil as friable as though pulverized. It has been 
producing rich crops for over three thousand years, 
without receiving the help that, in our colder climes, 
are considered necessary to keej^ land in condition. 
"What we put into the ground to fertilize it is there 
reserved for fuel. Cow-dung mixed with straw, and 
dried in the sun, forms a peat that is sold in the ba- 
zaars as fuel for native cooking. Wood is too scarce 
and dear for burning, nor could the people afford 
either this or charcoal. But, for less than one cent, 
they can obtain enough of the above peat for a day's 
cooking. So it is the universal fuel, and the land has 
to do without its help. In fact, water and sun in 
India seem to be about all that are really necessary. 
The fructifj^ing effect of the sun, with the moisture, 
secures the harvest. The natural rain-fall produces 
the lirst and heavier harvest of sugar-cane, corn, to- 
bacco, arrowroot, etc; while artificial irrigation 
(water being plenty and easily obtained) yields the 
second harvest, which includes cotton, w^heat, dal, 
barley, rice, and the smaller grains generally. The 
results are accomplished by the simplest of all modes 
of agriculture. These conservative people hold on 
tenaciously to the old methods of the far past. Their 
tools and plows are just the same, and no better than 
those used by their ancestors in the days of Abraham. 
They resent change and improvement, as involving 
a " reflection upon the wisdom of their ancestors." I 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 2S3 

introduced the cliain-piiinp and wheelbarrow, but 
they would not use them. They met my " new-fan- 
gled notion " with the expostulation (better to them 
than a score of arguments or any amount of experi- 
ence), by saying, " l^ow, sahib, from time immemo- 
rial our forefathers carried clay on their heads in 
baskets, and what are we that we should set up to 
be wiser than they ? " So I had to cease the effort. 
Only a change of religion will lift them out of these 
ruts, and that does so. Our people, as soon as they 
receive the grace of God, are emancipated from such 
folly, and ready for anj^ temporal improvements that 
can better their condition. When this land becomes 
Christian, and science has a chance to touch its agri- 
culture, how the face of the earth will bloom ! Their 
little miserable plow (made of two sticks) never yet 
turned up the soil to the depth of more than about 
five inches. Recuperative resources lie beneath which 
a Christian plow would bring to the surface. Hea- 
thenism is an unmitigated curse, not only to the body 
and soul, the heart, character, and life, but also to the 
very soil they till, the homes they live in, and the 
country over which they travel. 

But the blessed change and era of all possible im- 
provements is coming ; when this " garden of India" 
will be made to bloom like to "the garden of the 
Lord;" and, in this sense also, "There shall be a 
handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the 
mountains ; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon : 



284 From Boston to Baketlly. 

and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the 
earth. 

"Hasten, Lord, the glorious day! " 

It is characteristic of all false religions (as it is also 
of Komanism), that their " golden age " is in the 
jpast. Heathenism avows this, and monrns over it. 
On the contrary, evangelical religion looks exultingly 
onward to the future for its golden age of light and 
blessing, when " He shall have dominion from sea to 
sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth;" 
and when " Men shall be blessed in him every- where, 
and all nations shall call him blessed." 

But we are rolling along toward the west — sleep is 
out of the question, for we are to be in Bakeilly in 
a few hours ! O, w^hat memories are awake now ! 
We are living the past over again. Our first recep- 
tion there is before our busy recollections. It oc- 
curred just twenty-seven years ago, when this great 
valley was in " the shadow of death," and we came, 
so unconsciously, into the very center of solicitude 
and danger and unutterable sorrow. We had trav- 
eled round from Lucknow, ma Futtyghur, on the 
south, in a little carriage which held my family, and 
was drawn by eight men (being more economical 
than to travel by palanquin). That journey was a 
sample of the past. There were then no made roads 
in the valley, only tracks where bullock carts might 
move. So we were forty-eight hours going the sev- 
enty-six miles from Futtyghur to Bareilly. The ruts 



From Boston to Bareilly. 285 

were so deep that the axle of our carriage would 
catch frequently on the ridge in the center, when all 
hands would have to take hold and pull it back ; 
with a spade, which we carried for the purpose, we 
would break down the obstruction and throw the 
earth into the ruts ; then move on again for a while, 
until a similar difficulty would have to be surmounted. 
Thus, for two days and nights we " worked our pas- 
sage," till I was as much worn out and sleepy as a 
man need be. 

The good friend. Judge Bobertson, to whom we 
had a note of introduction, and by whom we w^ere 
expected, had instructed his servant to watch for our 
coming. Worn out with toil, we had all finally 
dropped asleep after passing the last station, where 
our men were changed, and knew no more till I 
heard a native trying to awake us by saying, in poor 
English, " Sahib, will you have a cujd of tea ? " 
Looking up, there stood the servant. It was nearly 
three o'clock in the morning. We were in Bareilly, 
and at the door of the kind gentleman who had 
promised to entertain us. He was a devout Presby- 
terian, and received us most kindly. Little did I 
imagine that, within a few weeks, he would have to 
suffer death for being a Christian. He had been 
over thirty years in India, and did not anticipate any 
serious trouble, notwithstanding the rumors that were 
even then abroad. We remained under his roof 
until I found and furnished a house, setting up my 



286 Feom Boston to Baeicilly. 

books and making all things ready for the commence- 
ment of onr work. My full report on the field 
chosen, with maps and statistics, were prepared and 
mailed to the Board, and an urgent appeal for some 
of the missionaries to be sent on to me. In the 
mean time I had opened services, both in English and 
Hindustanee, the latter being conducted by Joel, my 
nativ^e helper, who was so generously given to me by 
our Presbyterian brethren at Allahabad as I came up 
the country. The gloom which was daily deepening 
led many of the English officers to appreciate the serv- 
ices opened for them ; and I have the satisfaction of 
knowing that, during the ten weeks which intervened, 
some of them began to live prayerful lives, and 
sought the renewing grace of God. 

The service for the natives was, of course, very 
small in number. Joel and his wife, and three or 
four people who worked for us, and ourselves, with a 
young girl by the name of Maria, constituted the con- 
gregation. Maria was the daughter of an Eurasian 
store-keeper. She had gone some time before to 
visit friends at Calcutta, and while there had been 
led to attend the Baptist service, during a time of re- 
vival interest, and had experienced religion and been 
baptized. She returned to Bareilly, and was de- 
lighted to hear that a missionary was coming to her 
native city. As soon as we arrived she visited us and 
gave in her name, and thus became tlie first female 
member of our Church in India. My wife especially 



From Boston to Bareilly. 287 

rejoiced at the accession of this dear girl, so full of 
zeal and Christian simplicity, anticipating great help 
from her as our work opened. She spoke both En- 
glish and Hindustanee well, and was very lady-like in 
manner and character. 

I was not aware, till afterward, what an intense ex- 
citement our arrival occasioned among the people 
around us. We became the talk of almost every one 
in the city. As an illustration of this, I may mention 
a visit paid to me by a prominent native gentleman. 
Joel did the translating. This person put on an as- 
pect of much friendliness, and requested me to be 
candid in answering his inquiries, which I promised 
to do. After some unimportant talk he came to what 
he wanted to know, and said : " ]^ow, sahib, we peo- 
ple of Bareilly understand that you have come here 
as an agent of the English government, to be ready, 
when our caste is broken, by either force or fraud, to 
baptize us by the thousand, and thus complete our 
Christianization. Is not this so, sahib ? " 

I looked at him with astonishment, and replied : 
" Why, sir, how could it be so ? I am not even an 
Englishman, and have nothing to do with the gov- 
ernment." 

To understand what followed the reader will re- 
member that the natives of India have full confidence 
in the word of a white man. They think w^e are 
truthful to the last degree, and don't discount what 
we say. They declare of us that the white race are 



288 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

brusque and not courteous (as the English are careless 
about returning the salaams and salutations which the 
hnmblest native will always offer when they meet 
them), but they allow that this uncourteous race are 
honorable to the heart's core. So my native visitor 
was amazed at my declaring that I " was not an En- 
glishman," and solemnly, as if sorry to find me telling 
an untruth, said : 

" Why, sahib, your face is white, you are a Chris- 
tian, and yon speak the English language ; what else 
could you be but an Englishman ? " 

I answered, " Why, I am an American." 

"A what?" said he. 

" An American," I replied. 

Looking confused, and with much emphasis, he 
exclaimed, " And what is that f " 

I smiled, realizing that it was not flattering to our 
national pride to think that here was a tolerably in- 
telligent representative of one sixth of the human 
family who had never heard of us, and knew not 
that, away in the Atlantic, and beyond England, 
there was a nation of people as numerous as the En- 
glish, who spoke the same language, had white faces, 
and were Christians. 

I could not make it clear to my visitor. He had 
never heard of us. We are not in his geography. 
The interview terminated and he left my house, I 
fear, under the conviction that I had told a falsehood 
to cover my purpose. I have reason to believe that 



Fbom Boston to Bareilly. 289 

the impression produced by the conversation put my 
life in more jeopardy than if the interview had not 
taken place. Five or six years afterward, when the 
Hindu farmer began to receive nearly two rupees for 
the same quantity of cotton which he had sold for 
one rupee the year before, he began to inquire what 
was the reason. Our civil war and blockaded south- 
ern ports explained it, and men in India began to 
study modern geography ; the result was a stimulus 
to education in Hindustan. H my visitor survived 
till then, it is likely my character for veracity was 
entirely redeemed, thongli it was a long time to wait 
for vindication. 

The profession of neutrality in religion, which the 
government at that time had begun to avow rather 
freqnently, and sometimes even to the disparagement 
of Christianity itself, did not help the situation. It 
produced much the same result as my statement 
did on this man's prejudiced mind. People there 
could not believe it possible that a government could 
have a religion and not be zealous for it. To have 
it, and hold it lightly, w^as, in their view, insincere and 
deceptive, and conti'ary to their own practice. It 
wonld have been far better and safer to have avowed 
their Christianity, while they disclaimed any inten- 
tion to force it, directly or indirectly, upon the ac- 
ceptance of any one else. Meanwhile the heathen 
and Mohammedan priests were busy turning all this, 

and every thing else possible, to their purpose, and 
19 



290 From Boston to Babeilly. 

weaving their fearful web around Christian life, and 
longing for the time when their willing agents, the 
Sepoys, were to rise on the same day and hour all 
over India, and extinguish every thing Christian and 
English in the land ; and then restore the old regi- 
men in all its former vigor and profit to themselves. 
Every law that was passed to abolish customs con- 
trary to humanity, every missionary that came into 
the country, and every school that was opened in- 
creased their fears, and intensified their resolution to 
extinguish in blood this entire Christian civilization 
which had arisen in their country. 

These priests saw, with alarm and indignation, the 
abolition of ancient rites and ceremonies that were so 
highly profitable to themselves. With the humanity 
that terminated these miseries and murders, in the 
interest especially of poor suffering womanhood, 
they had no sympathy. They thought only of the 
rupees that were lost to themselves by the termina- 
tion of these abominable practices, and they cursed in 
their hearts the benevolent English officials who had 
decreed their final ending. The abolition of female 
infanticide, widow burning, the exposure of the sick 
to die, the charakpooja (hook-swinging) of Bengal, 
the immolation of devotees under the wheels of the 
Juggernaut, and other horrors, they resented with in- 
dignation. All these ceremonies were profitable to 
them, and hence the priestly caste opposed their aboli- 
tion with all their power. What immense gains, for 



Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 291 

instance, these Bralimans made out of tlie burning of 
those eleven wives of Riinjeet Singh ! It was propor- 
tionately so where only one woman w^as burned. She 
was entitled, as her last act before ascending the pyre, 
to distribute the contents of her jewel- box among her 
weeping friends around her, but the lion's share usually 
fell to the officiating priests. These humane laws of 
the British government cut down the perquisites of 
these greedy and heartless wretches. They were at 
once the high aristocracy and pampered priesthood 
of the nation, holding in utter contempt the lower 
castes. Every school opened became a terror to 
them, and especially when they saw these lower- 
caste youth freely received into them, lads '' whose 
fathers they would not have set with the dogs of 
their flocks." They feared the light which educa- 
tion was so sure to bring, the elevation which it 
would and did confer upon the classes whom they 
despised, and whom they did their best to keep down 
and degrade. So they plotted for the utter over- 
throw of the government and the missionary, and 
anticipated a return of the dreadful past, with a 
restoration of its fearful customs. 

But God is great for emergencies. He had " risen 
to shake terribly the earth." These men were al- 
lowed to run their course, and madly to hasten on the 
destruction of their purposes. They were doomed 
to see the consolidation of the Christian civilization 
which they so confidently expected to have over- 



292 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

thrown, and wliich, in its preservation at that time, 
was to involve so much for woman, and for India 
through woman. 

Tlie terrible 31st of May, 1857, came, and the con- 
spirators exulted in its ruin and bloodshed. Few 
scenes in all the land were more fearful than those pre- 
sented that da}^ in Bareilly, including the martyrdom 
of Maria and the murder of every Christian whom they 
were able to find. This was followed by our long 
months of anxious waiting upon the summit of 'Nj- 
nee Tal, daily and nightly watching the foe that was 
besieging us, and thirsting for our blood also. Six 
months later came my journey round the Himalayas 
to Mussoorie and Delhi, for the providential purpose 
indicated in the last chapter, and our return to Nynee 
Tal, accompanied by the two missionaries who had 
been able, as soon as the road from Cawnpore up had 
been cleared of the Sepoys, to join me at Meerut. 
Then followed the building of our little church, and 
the formal opening of our missionary work at Nynee 
Tal, while waiting the restoration of British authori- 
ty below, in Oude and Rohilcund, and the coming of 
more missionaries with which to occupy the leading 
towns and cities. But we had to wait six months 
more ere the road to Bareilly was cleared, and we 
could return and commence our work there and at 
Lucknow. Meanwhile the anticipated famine began 
to manifest itself, though its horrors were not fully 
developed for half a year later ; but God was aiding 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 293 

us in getting ready for the part which we were to act 
in that great emergency. 

Five missionary families were soon to sail from 
l^ew York to strengthen onr hands, which would 
raise our number to ten. Help was pouring in to 
provide homes for them, and my hands were full of 
hard toil to get ready for all that were coming. Ac- 
commodations were procured in Lucknow by pur- 
chase, but in Bareilly I had to build. Every Euro- 
pean residence had been burned, except the Freema- 
son's Hall, which the Sepoys had spared, as they 
understood that something mysterious occasionally 
occurred there, and it might not be lucky to touch 
it ; so it stood uninjured. Perhaps houses were 
never erected amid greater difficulties than those in 
Bareilly. By being prompt I managed to secure 
good sites, and to obtain safe titles to them, and then 
purchased and laid in what material I could obtain 
for. erecting two good mission houses without delay. 
The hot season was coming on, the tropical rains 
would begin toward the close of June. The mission 
houses must be covered in before the first of July. 
I had nearly sixty masons and carpenters employed, 
and gave my full time to push things ahead with 
them. Providence sent me just the man 1 needed to 
help me — a native by the name of Joseph Fieldbrave, 
a Christian, who had been one of the Lucknow gar- 
rison, and fought well for Christianity there. He 
was more a man of business than Joel, so I appointed 



294: From Boston to Baeeilly. 

the latter to go to preaching with the missionary I 
had stationed at Liicknow, and retained Joseph with 
myself at Bareilly. We got on well with our work 
till a competition commenced with the engineer offi- 
cer having charge of erecting the barracks, hospital, 
and other buildings for the English troops, who were 
waiting under canvas. He was in as much of a 
hurry to have his soldiers sheltered in time as I was 
to provide for the coming missionaries. 

To facilitate matters the government passed a spe- 
cial law, giving him the right to seize every kiln of 
bricks and every lot of timber he could find for sale, 
paying the value, of course. So I had to run a race 
with this engineer, a Major H. He could not come 
in on my ground and take any thing I had there, but 
he might go roimd me and find out, if he could, 
wdiere I obtained materials to keep my men going. 
Bnt Joseph and myself worked hard, and the walls 
went up fast. The major rode past daily, and won- 
dered at what he saw. He had power and plenty of 
money, yet his stock of materials were scant, and 
his walls did not go up as fast as he desired. He 
formed the resolution that he would find out where 
I got my materials, and then steal a march on me, 
and help himself at our expense. Joseph and I were 
determined that he should not if we could prevent it. 
Yet we made no plan, nor did I instruct Joseph what 
to do or say. I knew this good native had perfect 
sympathy with me in the work being done ; that he 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 295 

was a man of prayer, and was looking to the Lord, as 
I was, for help to carry on this work from day to day ; 
and that, in addition, he had a good stock of natural 
shrewdness, which could be depended on. I loved 
Joseph and trusted him fully, and he cordially recip- 
rocated my esteem and affection. We nsed to be up 
early while some other people were sleeping, and this 
was in some measure the secret of our success. So 
the walls continued to go up, and we were getting 
the roofs ready and doors and windows made, to the 
surprise of our friend, the major. 

One day, seeing Joseph alone, he took his oppor- 
tunity, rode up and saluted him, was very friendly, 
and put Joseph in good humor. He then said, " 'Now 
Joseph, I want to talk to you a little, and ask you a 
question or two." 

" All right, sahib, I will be glad to hear you and 
answer you." 

The major felt that his way was open to advance 
further, and he began to praise me to Joseph as a man 
of energy and ability, to all of which my good help- 
er fully assented. The major then ventured a little 
nearer to his object, became more confidential, and said: 

" Well, Joseph, it is wonderful how your sahib does 
push his work along upon these houses. Why, I pass 
Jby daily and the walls grow higher, and yet his heaps 
of bricks and timber don't seem to grow much less. 
It is wonderful. IS^ow, Joseph, how does he do it ? 
Where does he get his supplies ? " 



296 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

Without any hesitation Joseph answered, with one 
of his own pleasant smiles, " Sahib, I'll tell you," and 
the major's ear was set to catch every word ; " Well, 
don't you know, saliib, that my sahib is Jesus 
Christ's man ? " 

" O yes, I know that, but then about the supplies ? " 

"Well, sahib, he is doing this work for Jesus 
Christ." That w^as assented to, and he continued : 
'• You see, sahib, he gets anxious sometimes about 
having materials enough to finish them in time, and 
when this occurs, he just goes and tells God in prayer 
and asks him to help him, and God then gives him 
just what he wants, and that, sahib, is where my sahib 
gets his supplies." 

It was a novel idea of commissariat to the major, so, 
gathering up his reins, he bid Joseph good-morning 
and rode off. My worthy helper came round to 
where I was and told me, with a merry twinkle in 
his eye, the whole conversation. 

Nor did Joseph say one word which he did not 
fully believe. He knew it was my habit to do exact- 
ly as he said, asking help of God, and then using all 
the common sense and opportunity with which provi- 
dence favored us from day to day, and that thus we 
were kept going. If the major liad had " spiritual 
discernment " and " marked a providence," lie would 
have " comprehended " the exact correctness of Jo- 
seph's reply. But I suppose his inability led him to 
take the more limited and worldly view, and he set 



Fkom Boston to Bakeillt. 297 

down tlie answer to Joseph's adroitness to head him 
off in his artful effort. Perhaps it was a pretty good 
illustration of the text which says, " Be ye wise as 
serpents and harmless as doves." But the major was 
more than ever puzzled to find out from what brick 
kiln and timber yard our resources were derived. He 
little knew that (apart from what we first obtained 
before the law gave him his peculiar power) we had 
given up competing with him on that line, and were 
drawing what we further needed from a source of 
which he did not even dream. 

Here Joseph's sagacity was of great assistance to 
me. Some time before, when the piles began to di- 
minish rather fast, and we were becoming anxious, 
he called my attention to the fact that, in the recapt- 
ure of Bareilly, the year previously, General Jones, 
approaching it from the Delhi side, had to do some 
damage with his artillery to drive out the Sepoys and 
compel surrender. So there were some ruins here and 
there, of no particular use to their owners, which 
Joseph found they would be glad to sell, as we de- 
sired the materials only and not the land. They were 
willing to wait till next year to build, when the 
emergency would be over, and prices would have 
fallen perhaps one half. Thus it was a mutual advan- 
tage to them and us. Joseph would make the bar- 
gains and bring me to examine and sanction in each 
instance. Then he wonld put coolies on the walls, 
and the bricks, timber, and tiles would be got out, bul- 



298 Fbom Boston to Bakeilly. 

lock carts called, and the loads marched up to our 
premises. So our heaps were sustained, while our 
walls went up, and the major was puzzled to account 
for it. But we succeeded, and all was ready by the 
time that the missionaries arrived. It was a hard 
struggle, nevertheless, and especially for my family, 
as we had to go through that hot season under canvas, 
when the thermometer often stood from 130 to 140 
degrees in the sun, and boils and ophthalmia were the 
penalty that had to be endured for such exposure. 

My good helper had also charge of our little con- 
gregation. We h'xed up a room as a place of worship, 
and Joseph arranged for a dedication of it. One of 
the great deficiencies was something to sing that was 
suitable. Hymns and tunes were very scarce things 
then. But good Joseph assured me that he would 
look after that, too. How he could do it was more 
than I could imagine. But the Sabbath came round, 
the room was ready, had a little pulpit, and really 
looked very presentable. Joseph was at his best as 
he conducted the service. He had the hymns written 
out on paper for any w^ho could read to join. To my 
surprise, the singing was most hearty, with tunes that 
I had never heard before. When the service closed 
Joseph came to me, and was evidently anxious to 
know what I thought of the dedication, and especially 
of the singing. I told him how much I was pleased, 
and said, " But, Joseph, where did you get those 
hymns ? " With real modesty he answered, " Well, 



Feom Boston to Baketlly. 299 

sahib, I made them myself!" And when I asked 
for an explanation, how it came that the congregation 
had joined so heartily in the singing, I found that 
Joseph had selected native tunes, and having made 
verses that would go to them, he had drilled the 
people two or three evenings in advance of the 
" dedication " Sabbath, and hence the results that so 
surprised me. 

I did not then know what value there was in the 
effort, or what significance it bore to the future ; but 
I have lived long enough to see that it meant more 
than I then supposed. In subsequent years, when 
the hhajan style of hymns came into such favor in 
our mission, and native music was adapted, and their 
singing became so much more enthusiastic than our 
foreign hymns and tunes could be to them, my mind 
went gratefully back to this, the first manifestation 
of both, and I had good reason to appreciate the effort 
made by Joseph. There must have been both merit 
and originality in that instance beyond what I could 
understand : for last year, when I reached Bareilly, 
one of the first persons to accost me was a man of 
noble presence, who said, " O, sahib, how grateful I 
am that when I was a little fellow, running wild 
about these streets, you noticed me, and insisted that 
my father must send me to school that I might obtain 
an education ! " I looked up inquiringly, and they 
said, " Why, this is Brother Isaac Fieldbrave, the son 
of Joseph, your old helper." So here I found the 



300 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

poetic talent of the father resting, with large increase, 
upon the worthy son, who is to-day "the sweet singer" 
of our India Israel, and author already of nearly fifty 
of the hymns in our India Hymnal. He is an or- 
dained elder in our Conference, and one of the most 
devoted and successful revivalists that we have in 
that land. 

In due time the missionaries arrived, and were com- 
fortably settled in their new homes, and the entire 
machinery of our mission was soon in good running 
order. But our little congregations were sadly lack- 
ing in the woman element, and we had no female 
agency to w^ork in either school or zenana. The 
prospect was not encouraging. Still the hope born 
in my heart in the Dewanee-Khass remained, and 
its fruition was awaited with earnest expectation. 
Thinking I might push matters somewhat, I wrote 
and pleaded with Dr. Durbin to send me two lady 
missionaries, that we might try, without further de- 
lay, what could be done. He kindly granted the 
recpest, and they came. But we found that little 
could be effected then in that line of work. I was 
premature in the effort. Circumstances were not 
ready. 'No zenana home was open to them, and the 
people ridiculed our first efforts to establish girls' 
schools in Bareilly. So we had to " trust in the Lord 
and wait patiently for him," assured that though his 
"hour had not yet come," it would come, and we 
should see and rejoice in it. 



FiiOM Boston to Bareilly. 301 

Let us trace the furtlier links in that divine chain 
of events which our God was meanwhile preparing, 
and which were, ere long, to be united together so 
timely and effectually that the divine plan would 
be fully developed. I have, in the last chapter, 
referred to the two links already prepared : the 
suggestion and the letter in the '' Dewanee-Khass," 
and the education dispatch of Sir Charles Wood. 
Here were the preliminary and foundation facts on 
which all subsequent and cognate links were sus- 
pended. One was the State, converted, at last, from 
its subservience to caste, and from its indifference to 
the danger arising from the deep ignorance of the 
masses under its rule. The other was, the Clmrch 
of Christ, especially its feminine portion, called by 
the special grace of God to come to his aid for the 
enlightenment and redemption of their sisterhood in 
India, whom they alone could reach. The State 
stood ready, as soon as they came and had pre- 
pared a suitable native agency, to meet with liberal 
hand one half of the entire expense of their educa- 
tional efforts in schools and orphanages : it was " the 
earth helping the woman," under the providence of 
the Almighty. In the meantime God was guiding 
us, so that, when the events transpired where the 
opportunity which we were to utilize should come 
within our reach, we might be wise to " discern the 
signs of the times," and fulfill the duty expected of 
us. The good-will of the government in India, the 



302 From. Boston to Baeeilly. 

sanction of tlie home authorities, and our Missionary 
Society, the sympathy of the ladies of our Church, 
and the money to make our first efforts, were already 
secured and in our hand. We were ready and wait- 
ing for the coming events, now so near. 

5. The inevitable famine a23peared, and great 
numbers sunk under its pressure ere the government 
was able to institute measures of relief. JSTo rail- 
roads, no roads of any kind then, in or through the 
districts on which the infliction fell, by which help 
and succor could be hurried up for relief. But the 
government did what it could to mitigate the blow 
that had fallen upon the poor people. The native 
police were sent out through the villages to succor 
the living and to bury the dead. Even Hindu hu- 
manity led the poor parents to favor the children with 
the last morsel available. So that, in many cases, 
the children alone were found alive. The accounts 
of the misery that reached us were dreadful. As 
soon as possible the wretched little ones were brought 
into Moradabad, one of our mission stations, where 
the authorities took temporary care of them until 
some arrangements would be developed to take them 
off their hands. I went to see them, and never be- 
fore witnessed such wretchedness as they exhibited. 
But I felt assured that Christian kindness and educa- 
tion, and above all the Gospel of Christ, could work 
miracles among even these wretched starving chil- 
dren. 



Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 303 

6. I made my offer to the government to take up 
and adopt about one hundred and fifty of each sex. 
Of course they were much pleased to be relieved of 
the care of so many of them, and promised to render 
us every aid in their power in the burden which we 
were assuming. I secured the hearty sympatliy of 
nearly all the members of the mission in this effort. 
There were one or two timid ones who doubted the 
prudence of our course in taking such a heavy charge 
upon our hands. One of them remarked one day, 
" Brother Butler, what will you do with all those 
children ? You will bankrupt the mission, most 
surely." I could only reply, " The Lord will pro- 
vide ; wait and see." If that person had included 
the future more fully in his view, or had prayed as 
long and earnestly over this question of the number 
to be taken as I had done, he would have felt as 
the rest of us did, and have even regretted that we 
could not take a larger number. Yet, even that 
doubting one learned afterward to rejoice with us in 
the glad results. 

Taking my faithful helper, Joseph, with me, I 
went over to Moradabad to select the children, but 
after a day or two I learned, to my astonishment, 
that I had some further difficulties to overcome ere 
I obtained them. I found the English magistrate 
(who shall be nameless here) had no sympathy what- 
ever with our object. Whether this man's opposition 
arose from dislike to Christianity itself, or to our 



304 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

Methodist form of it, I cannot say ; but I soon 
learned tliat lie had made up his mind to obstruct us 
as far as he dared without involving himself with the 
government, whose sanction I had secured. He gave 
as a reason for his resistance to their adoption bj a 
Christian mission, that he objected to their being 
brought up in a faith oppossd to that of their 
dead parents. But I drew his attention to the fact 
that the co-rehgionists of their parents had shown no 
interest in taking them up and providing for them^ 
but left them and the rest in their misery. We had 
come forward, and were ready to do what they would 
not do ; but that we took them on our own condi- 
tions, which were, to educate them, not to be heathen, 
but to be Christians. His Hindu and Mohammedan 
friends could have as many as they chose (for there 
were hundreds left, and waiting for some one to have 
compassion upon them), and they could then bring 
them up as they should prefer. Yet they did not move 
a linger for the relief of, nor ask for, any of them ; 
they had other motives in view, and were at work 
upon them. I could not suspect how busy the devil 
was meanwhile trying to head me off, and that he 
was making use of this man for his purposes; but, 
no doubt, he well knew what our effort meant to him, 
and his dark dominion over the valley of the Ganges, 
and was resolved that we should be defeated, though 
the means involved the ruin, body and soul, of these 
poor girls whom we were so anxious to save I 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 305 

It was evident that I was going to have a struggle 
with this unworthy "Christian" for my share of 
these poor children. I knew I could have his resist- 
ance overruled by making an appeal to the govern- 
ment, but that was not desirable if it could be 
avoided. So I returned to Bareilly to see what 
could be done before bringing matters to an issue, 
though apprehending disadvantage from the delay. 
Taking the case to the Lord in prayer, I implored his 
help in this emergency, that he might " undertake 
for us." I felt sure that, whatever the resistance 
was, or might mean, that he w^ould not allow our 
hopes to be dashed to the ground, but would place 
this precious charge in our hands, and ultimately 
make them the help and blessing to our work in the 
future for which I had so earnestly hoped and 
prayed. But I soon learned that waiting would not 
bring them — a struggle for them was inevitable, and 
that for more reasons than we then knew or even 
feared, anxious though our own forebodings were. I 
began to realize that I should once more have to face 
the devil in his den in my efforts to preserve these 
children from his grasp. Alas, I dreamed not that 
they were already in his clutches, and that he, " like a 
lion greedy of his prey," was exulting over his suc- 
cess ! Still they were not absolutely his. Even from 
the jaws of Satan poor fainting souls may be rescued ! 
Glorious indeed is the divine attribute of power. I 

remembered that He was "the strong God," "the 
20 



306 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

Mighty One of Jacob," and to liim I went with an 
agonized heart (for I was growing very apprehensive), 
pleading for those little ones, whom I felt were in great 
danger, and that he alone could rescue them. How 
the word of God was adapted to our relief, as though 
given by his own inspiration for the very case in hand : 
" Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty 
shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall 
be delivered : for I will contend with him that con- 
tendeth with thee, and I will save thy children !" 

Within a few days came the glad news that the 
opposing magistrate was unexpectedly removed to 
another station, and his successor was hourly looked 
for. I waited till the arrival of the new magistrate 
was reported, and then went over again to Morada- 
bad to see him. "With an anxious heart I approached 
his office. He received me kindly. His gentle and 
manly looks encouraged me to believe that I should 
find sympathy for my object. He listened to my 
story, and, as I gave the facts, his fine countenance 
changed into indignant amazement, and he said, " O, 
how could any man with a Christian name and a 
white face put a barrier in the way of such an object 
as yours ! You shall have the children. Where are 
they ? " I could not tell. He turned to his native 
subordinates, and, in a tone that alarmed them, re- 
peated his question : '' Where are those children 
which this gentleman has selected ? " They shrugged 
their shoulders, and said, " Sahib, we don't know." 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 307 

But they were trembling. They saw that they had 
to do with a man with whom they dare not trifle. 
Their unity in this wrong melted away in a moment, 
and each began to clear him§elf of complicity in the 
terrible facts, till the accountability was brought 
home to the responsible party ; and a demand that 
they should be promptly restored and surrendered 
had to be at once given. Then was revealed the 
horrible crime which one or two of the Mohammedan 
officials of that court had arranged to perpetrate. 
Taking advantage of the former magistrate's refusal, 
and assuming that I would not earnestly push my 
claim, they had stolen the girls, not to bring them up 
in their ancestral faith (for that was Hinduism), nor 
even to snatch them out of the hands of Christianity ; 
but for the devilish purpose of having them brought 
up to a life of infamy ! It is hard to believe that there 
could exist creatures in human form capable of tak- 
ing these orphans in their utter wretchedness to sink 
them down to a doom like this ! We are told, that 
in the presence of the immaculate Christ men and 
demons had to stand confessed in their true charac- 
ter. We read of some who are described thus, " A 
man who had a spirit of an unclean devil" in him ! 
Now, how much above this lowest of all degradation 
— this compound of beast and devil — were the men 
who could for such a purpose deliberately sink these - 
poor girls into the " deep damnation " of a life of 
shame ! It is supposable that there may be demons 



308 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

who are not degraded enough to perpetrate such 
deeds as these. What is said by the poet of the fear- 
ful guilt of suicides — who rush uncalled into the 
divine presence — may be true in hell of human 
monsters of this class, that — 

" The common damned shun their society, 
And look upon themselves as fiends less foul." 

Often since have I hoped that it might be possible 
to believe the case was not so dreadful. I have but 
seldom referred to it, and never before wrote out the 
facts. Those responsible are probably no longer 
among the living. They have passed into eternity ; 
but, these things being so, what a "judgment to 
come " awaits them there ! My motive in giving the 
facts now will be manifest farther on in the narra- 
tive, although my readers will, no doubt, anticipate 
me in this, as exhibiting the " depth of mercy " 
which was illustrated in the rescue and saving of 
these poor but precious girls — saved, too, for such 
a different destiny — and also to show how much 
stronger is God than Satan and all his emissaries, no 
matter how sure and fortified they may be in their 
policy and efforts ! 

I hope that magistrate has no responsibility to 
meet in " the day when the secrets of all hearts shall 
be disclosed," for the fearful deeds of his subordi- 
nates. But he certainly will have to answer for the 
gratification he gave those Mohammedans, in refus- 
ing to give up the children to me, as well as for the 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 309 

opportunity which he placed in their power when he 
left those girls at their mercy on his departure. He 
imitated another magistrate, with whom he will have 
to stand at that awful bar of judgment, of whom it is 
written, that " Felix, willing to show the Jews a 
pleasure, left Paul bound," to meet a fate he did not 
deserve. Those girls were promptly recovered, to 
the last one, and sent, at the expense of somebody 
(not at our expense, certainly), right oif to Bareilly ; 
so that, within the week, Joseph and myself had the 
joy of receiving them all. How mad the devil must 
have been that day ! And how truly were the Script- 
ures illustrated here, " Of some have compassion, mak- 
ing a difference : and others save with fear, pulling 
them out of the fire ; hating even the garments spot- 
ted by the flesh ! " 

But how can I adequately describe these poor 
girls as they were set down at our door that day ? 
They were sent in large carts, each containing twenty 
girls. The oldest was probably twelve or thirteen 
years, the youngest a mere baby ; but three fourths 
of them were under eleven years of age. Each 
driver had his list for his load. He lifted out the 
largest one first, and laid her down ; then the rest, 
placing them around her, as if building them into a 
bee-hive shape. Then the heaps w^ere counted and 
the signature affixed to each list, and the carts moved 
off. It made the tears come to look at these deso- 
late little piles of humanity, cuddling up to each 



310 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

other, as thougli trying to hide themselves from the 
view of those white ladies and gentlemen that looked 
at them so seriously. They were all untidy, and 
their countenances bore the trace of the hunger 
through which they had passed. Indeed, one of 
them died on the way over from Moradabad, and we 
had to lift the little dead body out of the cart and 
bury it at once. Three or four others also were so 
far gone that we could not restore them. They, too, 
lie in our little cemetery. The rest we were able to 
save. The aspect was sad. No joy of childhood on 
any face, only a look of doubt and fear instead ; as if 
they were wondering what was going to happen to 
them, or whether we, who surveyed these groups, 
were to be kind to them or not. If I only had a 
photograph of them, as they looked that day, to place 
side by side with the photographs we have of them 
as they now appear, it ought to be enough to induce 
even an infidel (having any genuine philanthropy 
left in him) to ask the privilege of becoming a regu- 
lar subscriber to the missionary society which could, 
and did, do work like this, in paving and transform- 
ing such specimens of wretched humanity into the 
happy, cleanly, cultivated women, whose tears of 
grateful joy welcomed us back again, twenty-four 
years after, into Lucknow and Bareilly ! 

But, they were girls, and the glad thought was 
that they were now at last our own, to save and 
train and elevate, so that they might rise to be happy 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 311 

in themselves, and a blessing to tlieir country forever. 
We accepted them as a trust from God, as a response 
to our long and prayerful desire in the work that we 
had to do for him in India. How these hopes were 
justified, and even exceeded, will hereafter appear. 
All hands were soon at work in loving labor, to 
change the sad aspect of things. Our good ladies and 
their native helpers, before the sun went down, had 
accomplished a most delightful transformation. 
Bodies '^ washed in pure water," clean clothing, and a 
hearty meal of wholesome food, banished the gloomy 
looks, and brought out the first smiles we saw on 
those little faces. They began to realize what kind 
hearts and hands were now around them. And, then, 
their minds were, of course, in as necessitous a condi- 
tion as their poor bodies. Not one of all this group 
could read, or write her own name. A great work 
had to be done for the mind as well as for the body. 
These children being utterly without culture, and mor- 
ally " not knowing their right hand from their left," 
had to be carefully taught the difference between 
good and evil, and, then, for a lengthened season, 
they had to be as patiently borne with to help them 
to do, and continue to follow, after the things which 
made for their j)eace and purity. It was a great 
experiment that we had undertaken, to lift this 
mass of female humanity, every item of it, dark and 
degraded in body, soul, and spirit, up to health, to 
purity, to intelligence, and to God. How fully the 



312 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

laborious years of toil and self-sacrifice bestowed on 
them have been rewarded by the results, will be 
shown by the statistics I am soon to quote. 

Notwithstanding the prudence with which I tried 
to manage this painful business the facts got out, and 
it would have made that magistrate's ears tingle 
could he have heard some things said of him by the 
other English gentlemen, and especially by their la- 
dies. Even upright heathen condemned his unwor- 
thy action. So it was no surprise to me, on returning 
to India, just after he left it forever, to find that his 
official career had closed under a cloud. It is not 
men like him that God honors with the love and re- 
spect of the good and benevolent, devoted to the wel- 
fare of those around them. A very different class of 
thought was raised in my mind as I looked so gladly 
upon those happy groups of women w^hom he had 
tried to hinder me from saving. Thank God ! in de- 
spite of him they were saved, and they are there to- 
day, a precious band of Christian women, while he 
that would have hindered me is far away ! 

About the time that these difficulties had to be 
faced another magistrate at the next station (Bij- 
nour) chose to make himself unpleasant to us ; stand- 
ing in the way of our obtaining the land we needed 
for our mission-house and place of worship in that 
city. But this was only sectarian littleness. We 
were not Episcopalians, and, therefore, could have no 
claim on his sympathy ; not only so, he was weak- 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 313 

minded enough to try to hinder ns because we be- 
longed to those " insigniiicant Methodists." He 
could not even be civil. But, as he was "king in 
Bijnour," he assumed that we should have to submit 
to his will, and remain without a head-quarters for 
our mission there. This man knew so little of exist- 
ing Christianity, — he did not understand that we 
were a Church, and not only a Church, but also the 
largest voluntary Church in Christendom. Yet he 
affected to look down upon us. Poor man ! When 
I encountered a person of this class (though, I am 
thankful to say, there were very few such to en- 
counter) I never turned aside, nor altered my plans 
on his account. I went on, and made all my ar- 
rangements, and quietly waited (not on them, but) on 
God to remove the obstruction, whatever it might be ; 
and it was always done. I never failed to found our 
missions in the localities where I had been led to de- 
cide to place them. We occupy to-day every strate- 
gic point which I selected twenty-five years ago. 

But no credit to me for this. I had merely sense 
and grace enough to see that those who closely fol- 
lowed the Divine guidance should not be disap- 
pointed. No matter about the difficulties in the way ; 
God would look after them. I had only to "wait 
patiently for him," and he would not only guide, but 
also give me the desire of my heart. How many diffi- 
culties, large and small, this simple trust carried me 
through ! 



314 Teom Boston to Baeeilly. 

But others noted tlie results, and after awhile I 
had no trouble. I received all I wanted or asked for, 
and that, too, generally with much good- will and kind- 
ness. Time brings explanations of many things. 

Last year, in India, one of my old associates asked 
me: 

" Brother Butler, do you know what the English 
officials used to say about you when you were 
here?" 

" ]^o ; what did they say ? " 

"Why, it became a sort of accepted conclusion 
among them to remark, when your name came up, 
' Well now, I tell you, if Dr. Butler, the missionary, 
comes round to ask you to do something to help that 
mission of his, I advise you to let him have it ; don't 
refuse, for, if you do, you will either be removed 
elsewhere, or else you will get sick and have to ap- 
ply for furlough. At least, let him and his work 
alone.' Then A., B., and C, would be quoted as illus- 
trations of the fact ! " 

Certainly the case of Mr. P. at Bijnour was very 
much in point. He resisted our entrance there, and 
our obtaining land for the mission, even though the 
man who owned it was willing and anxious to sell to 
us. Yet Mr. P. set himself deliberately to hinder 
our work. But I put the matter into the Lord's 
hands and waited. Illness did soon lay hold on Mr. 
P., medical examination ordered him away to sea, 
and he was hurried off, to catch the next mail 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 315 

steamer from Calcutta. His successor in office proved 
to be a verj different sort of person, giving us both 
sympathy and help. The land was soon bought, the 
mission-house and place of worship erected; and 
there they both were when Mr. P. returned from 
England, the following year, standing on the other 
side of the road right opposite his own residence ! 
It is due to him to say that, after he got over his 
amazement, he brought his mind to the circumstances, 
and henceforth showed us considerable deference. 
But these were the exceptions : the usual rule with 
these generous English people, was hearty apprecia- 
tion and liberal help toward our new mission — and 
truly the pious among them (and there were many 
such) rose above all denominational narrowness and 
showed, in their catholicity of feeling, that they 
could fully appreciate Christian brethren who were 
not of their Church, and that they cordially sympa- 
thized in the sentiment, 

"Sectarian littleness disdain, 
Not in the order of each, vein 
Do purest gems agree." 

"We lost nothing by any contrary manifestation on 
the part of those who were weak enough to indulge it. 
It was agreed by the government, as our good 
friend Mr. Keid had arranged, that we should have 
the " Grant in Aid " for our Orphanages and Schools. 
The grant for the Orphanages was to be continued ten 
years, and then to cease, as by that time it was ex- 



316 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

pected that the institution would expend itself ; and 
the one hundred and fifty children of each sex would 
have been educated, and have gone forth to whatever 
duties of life might open to them. But, evidently, 
this was not the divine purpose concerning these 
institutions. The Lord knew that for a great duty 
like ours — with twenty millions of souls around us, 
having only us to look to for the light and teaching of 
salvation — that one hundred and fifty boys and as 
many girls could not supply one tenth the native 
agents that such a great work would require. Twenty 
millions of souls is an immense parish. A thousand 
boys and as many girls, even if fifty per cent, of their 
number became efficient preachers and teachers, 
would only yield one agent for every twenty thou- 
sand souls in that valley. 

The continuation of these Orphanages became nec- 
essary for the work which God had called us to 
do for him, and he provided for that continuance by 
furnishing the children and leading the government 
there and the Church at home to perpetuate their 
assistance until a more adequate agency was pro- 
vided. This was accomplished in India by the 
Divine blessing which rested upon those who had 
charge of the institutions, so that they gained such a 
character for efficiency and benevolence among both 
English and natives, that destitute children were sent to 
them from all the region round. On inquiring of the 
government what we were to do as to the support of 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 317 

these additional cliildren which were sent to us by the 
magistrates and others, we were kindly told that we 
might add their names also to the list for which we 
drew the monthly " grants in aid." Thus, on the ex- 
piration of the ten years, the valuable help continued 
right on as usual, and still continues, though more 
than twice ten years have passed over. So also the 
help and sympathy of the Church at home have been 
uninterrupted ; and accordingly both of the Orphan- 
ages have gone on with their beneficent work, and for 
twenty years we have been graduating classes of those 
precious youth of both sexes, and meeting the wants 
of our mission in the suitable agents which the spread- 
ing work requires. And, now, the college comes in 
to meet the great necessity of that higher culture 
which is imperatively demanded, and which is not 
only to give us a trained native ministry, but also en- 
able us to dispense entirely with any heathen assist- 
ance in our schools ; so that all our helpers of any 
class will soon be Christians only. The numerical 
statistics of these institutions will enable my readers 
to fully appreciate the great value to our cause of 
these providential facts, which the good hand of God 
concentrated here for our help in the work that we 
had to accomplish for him. 

What all this amounts to now, and what it implies 
for the future of that work, will be seen a few pages 
farther on. The wisdom of God was manifested in 
thus early placing these children in our hands, and in 



318 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

providing the means necessary for their support and 
training, while he was preparing meanwhile the other 
links of that chain of mercy with which they were to 
be united so soon as they had been prepared for the 
work that they were to perform. The first hundred 
and fifty girls all passed through the Orphanage ; but 
quietly God supplied their places, and even doubled 
the number, so that we have to-day over two hun- 
dred and eighty girls under training for the coming 
future. Perhaps none of our missionaries will have 
higher honor and greater joy in the presence of our 
Lord than will those who have so faithfully and 
patiently labored for the welfare and salvation of these 
children. Brother and Sister Thomas, Sister Fanny 
Sparkes, Brother and Sister Johnson, and Brother 
and Sister Bare, will, no doubt, be glad forever for 
what God enabled them to do in the preparation of 
this native agency for the redemption of the Gangetic 
valley. Leaving them thus emj^loyed, let us try to 
trace the other aspects of the Divine plan which were 
to concur with this when all had been made ready 
for the requisite union and action. 

7. In addition to the important movements already 
traced, it was also indispensable, in order to render 
them effective, that the old and wicked prejudice 
against female education should pass away, after its 
lengthened tyranny of thousands of years, and that 
a new public sentiment in favor of the instruction of 
women should be created in India. Even men like 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 319 

Dr. Duff could not forecast how this wonderful revo- 
lution in public opinion could be brought about, or 
how the Brahminical resistance to any change could 
be overborne. But God knew, and was working 
on toward that result in compassion for the benighted 
women in those dreary homes of ignorance and 
gloom. Sir Charles Wood's educational enactment, 
and its generous provisions of assistance for teaching, 
irrespective of sex or creed, was stirring the hearts of 
men, leading them to think and feel, till they were 
beginning to realize the shame that ignorance had 
fastened on themselves, their families, and their na- 
tive land. This thought, under the divine providence, 
was working so powerfully in the minds of those who 
lead native opinion, that they were becoming ready 
for a change, and many of them were glad to accept 
any strong and reasonable excuse to cast off the fet- 
ters that had so long bound them all. 

Yet they were individually timid about taking the 
initiative. If they could move together they would 
go into the innovation. But to do this required a 
leadership, that was far beyond their courage. What 
was just then needed was an imperial power — a voice 
that could speak and be heard all over India, com- 
mending the great change and urging it upon them 
as a duty. God had that voice ready. The honored 
man, to whom was given to speak the first and effect- 
ive utterance for woman's enlightenment was Lord 
Lawrence. And beyond what even he was conscious 



320 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

of, was to be tlie power and influence of those few 
words, wliicli no other governor-general had ventured 
to utter — for they had all ignored woman, as a creature 
not to be named or known, and who had no claim 
whatever upon the consideration of the governing 
power. But this great viceroy, who had already 
commended the subject to the consideration of prom- 
inent individuals among them, resolved to give it 
public indorsement, and took his opportunity at the 
grand durbar, in Lahore, on the 18th of October, 
1864. Before that brilliant assembly of chiefs and 
princes he laid down the obligations which their posi- 
tion involved for their country's welfare, by educa- 
tion and good administration, and then closed with 
these emphatic words, " To this end I urge you to 
instruct your sons, and even your daughter s.^"^ Those 
words rang over India, and were repeated by him in 
other durbars. Their influence was immense. The 
viceroy had m^ov^^di female education, and the En- 
glish government had ^YOYidiQdi funds for its general 
establishment. 

The position had become irresistible, a new public 
sentiment was originated which was going to carry all 
before it. It is to-day omnipotent in India. . Not a 
'' dog moves his tongue " against it, from Cape Com- 
orin to the Himalayas. Even the sullen Brahmins are 
silent, and dare not resist it. At first there may have 
been a measure of that sycophancy which is character- 
istic of Oriental submission to the expressed " Hook- 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. S'2i 

nm of the Sirkar," as tlie government behest is called. 
But long since their enlightened judgments have ap- 
proved the daring innovation, and the zeal of many of 
them (even to the extent of devoting large portions of 
their own revenues to help on the cause of fe- 
male education) will be shown hereafter. Honored 
be the memory of the great Christian viceroy, who, 
when "darkness was upon the face of the deep" of 
India's homes and India's women, had the godlike 
courage to stand forth and say, " Let there be light ! " 
His name will yet be gratefully entwined by the 
daughters of Hindustan with those of the worthies 
who abolished female infanticide and terminated the 
suttee. To such a man, and the results of his admin- 
istration, " the last words of David " (recorded in 
2 Sam. xxiii, 3, 4) might well be applied, as de- 
scriptive of such a governor as India had in Lord 
Lawrence — and they ought to be descriptive of every 
man elevated to rule — especially in a land like Amer- 
ica, w^here we have free choice and elect our own 
governors : " The God of Israel said . . . He that 
ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of 
God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, 
when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds ; 
as the tender grass springing out of the earth by 
clear shining after rain." Such a ruler of men Avas 
this governor-general, and the memory of his kind is 
blessed in India, as in every land favored with such 

godlike administrations. The world is weary, the 
21 



322 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

Chiircli disgraced, and God dishonored by tlie eleva- 
tion of the wicked to rule over men anywhere. But 
it is simply shameful, and a denial of God's authority, 
to elect sinners to rule over a Christian people. 

Well was it for woman and the cause of her educa- 
tion that it could truly be said of Lawrence, " Thou 
art come to the kingdom for such a time as this." 
There was one who closely followed him in that seat 
of power who, had the great work not been done be- 
fore he came, would, I fear, have utterly ignored it, 
and the opportunity might have been lost for a gen- 
eration to come. But when God's hour of mercy 
arrived, and the other favoring circumstances were in 
concurrence, the man was there too, as God's honored 
agent, to give effect to the benevolent purpose of the 
Almighty. 

8. There was a suddenness in this amazing change 
that surprised us all ; and as the new situation com- 
mended itself so extensively to the judgment of every 
one who desired to see the women of India elevated, 
a great difficulty began to develop itself — one that 
was so serious that some feared and became anxious 
lest the benevolent intentions of the government 
should be shipwrecked upon it. There arose an ap- 
prehension that they had created a demand beyond 
their ability to supply it, and that the whole of the 
precious prospect was in danger of being lost ! The 
government was asked by the nobles, who had ac- 
cepted the proposition of educating the ladies of 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 323 

their families, wJio was to give the education which 
they had consented to accept ? They reminded the 
government it could not be received from any agency 
but a female one. Ko man could enter those zenana 
homes, even to save life, and if education was to en- 
ter there a woman must bring it. Where were the 
educated women to be found to do this work ? The 
question puzzled the government. In fact, they had 
not realized this difficulty or how it was to be met, 
and they were at a loss for a proper answer. They 
could only reply that they would give the question 
their earnest consideration, and see what could be 
done to meet the demand which they had created. 
The proposition was discussed to advertise for teach- 
ers in England, who would go out to India, learn the 
language, and give themselves to this work for a series 
of years. I suppose the effort was made, but I have 
yet to learn that it w^as responded to, or that any such 
teachers went out to impart secular instruction. 
Worldly women could not be induced to go to In- 
dia, endure the climate, learn the language, and de- 
vote their lives to work of this kind, merely under 
the lure of a good salary, and a pension after so many 
years of toil — for such the Indian government gives 
to all its servants. Had the government been shut 
up to secular women, moved by secular motives, then 
Lord Lawrence's generous hopes must have largely 
failed, and Sir Charles Wood's education measure 
been of little worth in India. There was a pause 



324: Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

here, and men waited to see wliat could be done to 
meet the emergency. 

9. And now, when so much needed, came forth the 
last of these golden links to draw together and vital- 
ize all the others, combining them in a vast aggre- 
gate of good, the effects of which will live forever. We 
read that, " When the fullness of the time was come, 
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under 
the la^, to redeem them that were under the law, that 
we might receive the adoption of sons ; " so, as 1869 
approached, and the success of the great hope that 
had been awakened in the heart of India for the en- 
lightenment of one sixth of all the women on earth 
(hidden away in the secluded homes of that land), as 
well as for women in all unevangelized climes, God 
revealed the agency that he had in reserve to meet 
the emergency and to complete his plan. The Woin- 
an^s Foreign Missionary Societies were organized ; 
organized " in the fullness of time," when the zenana 
doors were at last opening, when the government was 
ready to welcome them gladly, when the appropriate 
native female agency required had been made ready 
to help them, when the requisite funds were available 
for their schools and orphanages, and when the field 
was all their own and every obstacle had been re- 
moved out of the way of their work and usefulness ; 
then they came, with loving hearts and gentle hands, 
to render this new and peculiar service which they 
alone could accomplish. 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 325 

How timely it was all arranged ! Had they come 
earlier the value of their work could not have been 
so evident as it was when it became so manifest that 
they would do this service for their sisterhood in 
India — not for secular gain, but for love — "the love 
of Christ, which passeth knowledge." Their disinter- 
ested devotion carried with it a power for good which 
told at once and wonderfully with the hearts which 
they were to benefit. And again, had they come 
earlier, the requisite agency of educated girls to aid 
them, and whose labors they were to direct (thus 
multiplying their own power and usefulness), would 
not have been ready for them. How wonderfully 
each portion of the divine plan fitted to the others, 
and what an important part that female Orphanage 
was to bear in the great work, may be illustrated in 
a single fact. Miss Clara Swain was the first female 
physician sent by any ladies' society to the East. 
There was great interest excited in Bareilly by the 
announcement of her coming. Many ladies in its 
zenana homes, languishing for the help which her 
healing art would afford them, impatiently await- 
ed her arrival. It was wonderful to those heathen 
women that she should leave her home and native 
land and cross the world to bring health and healing 
to them ; and all this, not for gain or worldly motive, 
but for love and good-will. They had never heard 
or imagined any thing so gracious and disinterested 
as this was. At length she arrived, but felt sad over 



326 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

the tlioiight that she should have so long to wait ere 
she could begin her benevolent work in their homes 
of suffering, for want of the language. It seemed as 
though two years must elapse ere she could acquire 
that and be able to commence her practice. But 
how delighted she was to be told by Mrs. Thomas 
that she need not delay one day in responding to the 
eager calls for her help. Several of the graduating 
class in the Girls' Orphanage had been trained in a 
knowledge of the English language, and she had only 
to select the girl she preferred from among them who 
would thus become her companion and interpreter, 
and at once commence her blessed work. This she 
did, and so, only a few hours after her arrival in Ba- 
reilly she was fulfilling her mission as a medical lady 
in those zenana homes. 

The fact was so suggestive that she not only went 
on with her practice, but also took five members of 
that class and commenced a course of medical instruc- 
tion with them that in three years enabled her to offer 
the class for the consideration of the government au- 
thorities, who had them examined, and they were 
voted license to practice as medical women. Another 
class was trained by Dr. Humphrey, and yet another 
by Dr. Dease. So that about eighteen of our girls 
have already been qualified as medical practitioners. 
The value of this single fact, as a result of that Or- 
phanage, in such a land (where a lady would rather 
die than permit a male physician to enter her pres- 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 827 

ence), will be appreciated by my readers, and calls for 
most devout gratitude to Him, whose blessed sugges- 
tion originated that institution, and who had in view 
all the good, temporal and spiritual, that it was capa- 
ble of accomplishing for the millions around them. 

High and low, rich and poor alike, have been led 
to appreciate the disinterested devotion illustrated 
here. What thousands of suffering women have been 
helped by the dispensary and the hospital there estab- 
lished we shall know when the report is presented. 
The highest testimony to its value and effectiveness 
was given when the I^awab of Rampore, voluntarily 
and unasked, presented his Bareilly palace and 
grounds a gift to our mission, in order to furnish to 
Miss Swain a woman's hospital, adequate in conveni- 
ence and extent for the work she was doing for his 
countrywomen. 

But here we must pause, for we are approaching 
Bareilly in that railway train from Lucknow. All 
these reflections, and many more which centered 
there, had been occupying our thoughts during the 
five hours that we rushed on toward it. Of course the 
Theological Seminary, and Training School as well, 
came in for their share of remembrance, as our ador- 
ing gratitude ascended to God for what we were 
about to see in such effectiveness ; while, in tender 
reminiscence, there rose up that pathetic fact of Ma- 
ria's martyrdom and what had come of it. The very 
ground where she resided I had secured by purchase 



328 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

when Havelock's victories enabled me to return to 
Bareillj. The Female Orphanage of our Church stands 
on the site of her home and the little garden around 
it. So that on the very ground where she used to tread, 
and where she so often knelt to pray for the coming of 
the Gospel to her country, hundreds of Christian girls 
have been raised up to aid the work she loved so well. 

And this is but the beginning. That the blood of 
His martyrs has been the seed of his Church is true 
in this case, also, and with a wonderful emphasis. 
This humble and gentle girl, of whom Bareilly was 
not worthy, did not die in vain. She was inheritor 
of the promise, that " the little one shall become a 
thousand." God is guaranteeing the literal fulfillment 
of the prediction ; for already more than one fourth 
of that number of her race and sex have there become 
the followers of her Saviour — a goodly company of 
whom, as we shall learn a few pages farther on, are 
now fully employed in the promotion of the blessed 
cause to which she was willing to give her service, 
but had, instead, to give her life ! But, if this is the 
result reached at the end of the first quarter of a 
century, can there be reasonable doubt that, ere the 
second quarter closes, the predicted " thousand " will 
not only be reached, but will " overflow with right- 
eousness," in a consummation of glorious power 
through all that valley ? 

Such were the thoughts which filled our souls and 
banished sleep during those midnight hours as we swept 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 329 

through the towns and villages of that Gangetic Yalle j, 
on our way from Lucknow to Bareilly. The clear silver 
light of the moon enabled us to realize where we were 
at every stopping-place, and it was delightful to re- 
alize how many of them had already the Methodist 
pastor, and a place of worship and school established, 
with a little body of Christian believers, letting their 
light shine amid the deep darkness of a venerable 
and popular idolatry. When I left India, eighteen 
years ago, only nine of the larger cities had been oc- 
cupied, and about as many more of the intervening 
places. But now, such has been the divine blessing 
on the toil of our missionaries, I find nearly all the 
important towns are linked in with the large cities, 
and our Methodism has a standing in not less than 
one hundred and fifty towns and cities within the 
bounds of the North India Conference ; a steady gain 
of more than seven points every year since the or- 
ganization of the mission. It would not be easy to 
find a parallel to such extension in any single mis- 
sion, even in this age of progress. To God be all the 
glory ! 

For nearly -Q.ye glorious hours that night sleep was 
out of the question. We were approaching Bareilly, 
and our poor hearts were thrilling with the thought 
how much the light of the next day would disclose 
to our delighted vision ! We had crossed the world 
to reach this blessed center, and now it was close at 
hand — only an hour more — ^for some gong had just 



330 FnoM Boston to Baeeillt. 

struck " two o'clock." But just here poor tired nature 
began to give out, and imperatively demanded a short 
nap. As tlie irresistible drowsiness crept over me, 
the last thought was, " How shall I manage about 
our luggage? I understand it is a full mile from 
the station to the mission. We can easily walk that 
distance in the lovely moonlight if there is only some 
way by which the luggage can come along." We 
had not dreamed of any reception, especially in the 
middle of the night ; so, with this little anxiety I sank 
off into a weary doze, which seemed not to have lasted 
more than ten minutes, when it w^as suddenly broken 
by the whistle of the engine ; and rising to my feet, 
I knew we were approaching Bareilly. Immediately 
the train ran rapidly into the siding, and the end of 
the platform was reached — when, lo ! something that 
seemed like a white wall, about five feet high, stood on 
the outer edge, and before I could recover my sleepy 
surprise that they should put a wall there to keep 
people from landing, " the wall " began to show 
streaks up and dowm, and as the rapid movement be- 
came more controlled, the " streaks " defined them- 
selves into a row of girls, in their usual white raiment, 
extending from one end of the platform to the other. 
It was our dear orphan girls— all of the two hundred 
and eighty that were old enough and could walk so 
far a,nd keej) awake so long — who had requested Miss 
Fanny Sparkes to allow them to come up to meet 
and welcome once more to Bareilly " The Father and 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 331 

Mother of tlie Mission ! " Beliind the girls stood the 
theological students, the missionary families, and a 
number of the members of the Church. In front 
of all stood Miss Sparkes, and the moment they saw 
our faces, and realized that we were in the train, there 
rose, to the tune of " Old Hundred," the doxology, in 
their own language : 

" Tin ek Khuda jo la-mafruq 
Hamd us ki-karo sab makhluq 
Asmanio, zaminio! 
Bap, Bete, Ruh ki hamd karo 1 " 

E'ot till we are hailed by the waiting ones on 
" the golden strand," shall we again behold any thing 
as blessed as was that group of welcome, so radiant in 
the lovely moonlight, with their doxology of joy 
rising upon the night air to heaven ! 

How small, how formal and fleeting, seemed any 
of the honors that this world confers compared with 
this simple, hearty, and holy welcome at Bareilly ! 
Our fellow-passengers woke up, and asked, in amaze- 
ment, " What does all this mean ? A*congregation 
at a station in the middle of the night singing the 
Christian doxology ! " And they gazed out upon the 
hallowed scene with increasing surprise. But we 
had no time to answer their inquiries. We were too 
deeply engaged trying to have the door opened and 
get out among that company, whose loving hands and 
hearts were so eager to hail and welcome us ! 'No 
wonder Mrs. Butler, after enthusiastically embracing 



332 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

that long line of precious girls, stood still and cried 
for excess of joy and gratitude. It was all such a 
contrast to the days gone by, when she and others, in 
distress of soul, made those earnest efforts to reach 
and teach even half a dozen girls in this city, and 
could not do it — had to give it up in despair and sit 
down and weep over the failure ! 

And now, here was this happy crowd of Christian 
girls welcoming her into the same Barielly with a 
doxology of joy! "What hath God wrought!" 
After a multitude of congratulations we were re- 
leased, and our kind entertainers. Brother and Sister 
Thomas, carried us off to their comfortable home, 
where welcome rest awaited us. But how grateful 
was the prayer that we offered to God that night for 
all the mercies of this journey, and for the blessing 
and the joy with which it had just been crowned ! 

Next day they had a formal reception for us in the 
Girls' Orphanage, having done all they could to make 
it interesting and delightful. It was the brightest 
sight we had^ever seen in India — that precious group 
of Christian girls, two hundred and eighty-four in 
number — all so neat and happy, who, together with 
their instructors, the mission families and visitors, 
filled the entire hall. The dark eyes of the orphan 
girls were lustrous with interest, and gleamed out the 
grateful feelings that evidently filled their hearts. 
The occasion was evidently an event in their lives — as 
it certainly was in our own — and one never to be for- 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 833 

gotten by eitlier party. After devotional services 
they sang sweetly several of their hymns, such as 

" I need thee every hour, 
Most gracious Lord," etc.; 

and, 

" His name yields the richest perfume, 
And sweeter than music his voice," etc. 

It was delightful to reflect that so many of them 
w^ere singing these estatic words from a heartfelt real- 
ization of their meaning. Miss Sparkes was presid- 
ing, and Mrs. Butler and myself had been seated in 
the posts of honor. A hush, and the manifestations 
of an intense interest began to steal over the assem- 
bly. It was evident that something more than 
ordinary was about to occur. Amid this solemn 
attention, one of the teachers stepped out into the 
center aisle. She was one of the original hundred and 
fifty orphans, and is retained as a leading teacher. 
How sweet and precious she looked ! Controlling her 
own emotions, she proceeded to give, in her own lan- 
guage, the address of welcome on behalf of the orig- 
inal number, as well as of all who were then present, 
expressing their gratitude to God and to us for all 
that had been done to make them w^hat they were 
that day, and expressing gratefully their appreciation 
of the tender affection which led us, so voluntarily 
and without any official obligation, and even in our 
old age, to cross the world to see tJierrh once more. It 
was accepted by them as one of the highest instances 
that they had ever known of Christian love ; they be- 



334 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

lieved it could have been prompted onlj by the great 
love of the precious Saviour, who died for them. 

When she had concluded, there stepped out three 
little ones — the leader of them, perhaps nine years old 
or less, advanced toward us, the other two behind her, 
bearing something covered up on a tray; all evident- 
ly feeling the importance of what they had to do on 
behalf of the rest. The little tot advanced till she 
stood right before us, and then, with wonderful self- 
command, she said : 

" Sahib and memsahib, salam (peace be unto you.) 
I have been selected by the school to offer you our 
nuzzar (a gift of honor and affection) because, sahib, 
I am the orphan child of the first orphan girl you 
took up. The name you gave my mother was Al- 
mira Blake. She lived to grow up and be educated- 
and became a Christian, and was married to a preach, 
er. My mother died three years ago, and my father 
last year, and I was left alone, and they took me in 
here for my mother's sake. So, sahib, this is the rea- 
son why they selected me to present the offering of 
their love and gratitude to you and to the memsahib." 

Before I state what she did, let me refer to her 
first words. How well I remember when, in l^ovem- 
ber, 1858, divine Providence placed in my hands the 
Jlrst female orphan we ever received. She was a 
poor, weak, little creature, blind of one eye, and plain 
featured — certainly no beauty — but she was a girl, 
and she was all our own to rear for Jesus and his 



Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 335 

Church. We rejoiced over her, and felt she was a 
precious charge for India's sake. Dear sainted Mrs. 
Pierce cherished her with a mother's love. This was 
our first female orphan, and she lived to grow up, to 
experience religion and become a teacher, and a use- 
ful woman, and was sought in marriage by one of our 
native preachers. She did well in this relation, and 
when her early death occurred, she died comforted 
by the presence of her Redeemer. And now here 
was her little orphan daughter standing before us, 
speaking for her mother and all the rest, so simply 
and gratefully ! 

Tiirning round, the little one then beckoned with 
her finger, and the other two advanced to her side, 
and the tray was uncovered, and there were the lov- 
ing gifts of the dear girls, wrought with their skillful 
fingers — a pair of elegant satin sofa pillows, all 
worked over with flowers, amid which were entwined 
the beautiful forget-me-nots, and marguerites. Lift- 
ing one of them on her left hand she pointed with 
the other at me, and said, " Now, sahib, when you 
return home and feel weary, you are to lay your head 
on this and think of us girls," and in her simplicity 
she bent down her little head to the pillow, as if to 
show how it was to be done. Then she lifted the 
other and pointed to Mrs. B., and repeated her di- 
rections. Worked slippers were then presented 
and particularized. Last of all were lifted a pair of 
elegant satin caps, worked in the same style as the 



336 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

pillows, and after speaking of mine, she took up the 
other, and said, " And now, sahib, when we had fin- 
ished that for you, we remembered your love for 
good Brother Joel^ your first helper, who has been so 
faithful, and we thought it would gratify you if we 
made another for him, and have you put it on his 
head. He is blind now, sahib, and wont be able to 
see you, but it will be so nice for you to put it 
upon his head when you meet him soon at Chan- 
dausi ! " 

All this was done with a natural grace and sim- 
plicity so charming that it won every heart as well 
as ours, and the little one was congratulated on all 
sides, as she resumed her seat, for the skill with which 
she had conducted the presentations on their behalf. 
How amply repaid was the toilsome journey by the 
events and emotions of this glad reception ! 

Being anxious to present to the Church, and espe- 
cially to those who have been patrons of these dear 
girls during the past twenty-four years the results of 
that Orphanage to the cause of Christ in India (so 
far as these results can be traced in figures), I had 
brought with me my own lists and correspondence, 
that I might have the help which Mrs. Thomas and 
Miss Sparkes and others there could give, in ascer- 
taining how fully the anticipations concerning the Or- 
phanage have been realized, and the prayers offered on 
its behalf have been answered. I made the same effort 
on behalf of the Boys' Orphanage; and since my 



From. Boston to Bakeilly. 337 

return have liad to conduct an extensive correspond- 
ence, in order to obtain the further accuracy that was 
so necessary to reach the facts as fully as it was possi- 
ble to do so. 

I have been able to trace nearly one hundred and 
thirty of the original orphan girls through their 
school days, and after they left the Orphanage, to 
their present position. If my readers will refer to 
the description of these girls as they were laid down 
at our door twenty- four years ago (commencing on 
page 309), they can then fally appreciate tlie wonderful 
significance of the results which I now present, as to 
how they turned out and what they became — what 
Christian education and divine grace have made out 
of that helpless group of misery and degradation. 

Of that original band of orphan girls the records 
before me show that they became : 

Medical Practitioners 8 

Dispensary and Hospital Assistants 5 

Sciiool Teachers and Zenana Visitors 28 

Others, married, Colporteurs 3 

" School Teachers 14 

" Exhorters 5 

" Local Preachers employed in the work 14 

* Alembers of Conference 10 

A total of Christian Workers numbering; eighty-seven, and 

connected officially witli the agency of our mission for the evan- ** 
gelization of the country. 

In addition to these, the number who married into secular life, 
but to Christian men, members of our churches and congre- 
gations, who are tradesmen, farmers, servants, etc., amount to 37 

Making an ascertained total of 124 

22 



338 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

The difference between this and the original num- 
ber is accounted for by death, removals, etc. Some 
of these deaths have begun to be recorded among 
the " Memoirs " in the Minutes of the Korth India 
Conference. Two such appeared last year. Those 
of Helen, wife of Rev. Ambica Cham Paul; and 
Mary Wheeler, wife of Rev. T. W. Greenwold. The 
latter was among those trained by Miss Swain as lady 
doctors. The record of both, as wives of native pas- 
tors, is honorable, and their deaths were triumphant. 

Having traced the history of the original band of 
orphans as far as it was possible to do so, I then 
requested Miss Sparkes to furnish me with an abstract 
of the names and history of the girls which have 
come into her care during the twelve years that the 
Orphanage has been under her control, so as to com- 
plete our view of the value and results of the institu- 
tion to our mission during the twenty-four years of 
its existence. This she did, and closed her commu- 
nication with the cheering statement : " Of the 125 
girls who have gone forth from this Orphanage since 
I assumed charge of it, I find that 101 are to-day 
engaged in Christian work in the mission." This is 
a wonderful record. So, combining the earlier and 
later bands of orphan girls, the following is the re- 
sult to Christianity. 

The Bareilly Orphanage has given to our mission 
within the period named the following band of cult- 
ured helpers : 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 339 

Medical Women 16 

Assistants in Dispensaries and Hospitals t 

School and Zenana Teachers 56 

Wives of Colporteurs 5 

Wives of Bxhorters 8 

Wives of School Teachers 32 

Wives of Local Preachers employed in the work 39 

Wives of Members of Conference 18 

A total of Christian Workers 181 

Besides this, it has furnished wives to Christian 
farmers, tradesmen, etc., 78 ; a grand total of 259 
Christian women, leaving about 50 of the 309 re- 
ceived to be accounted for by deaths, removals, etc. 
May it not be humbly, but gratefully, asked whether, 
in the history of Christian orphanages, there ever has 
been a result which calls for deeper gratitude to God 
than this exhibit presents to the women of our 
Church? How their prayers have been answered 
and their liberality rewarded is manifest in this won- 
derful outcome, which will, I am sure, lead thousands 
of loving and grateful hearts to be " abundant also by 
many thanksgivings unto God." 

Who can calculate the results to Christianity and 
the future which these 259 girls have secured to our 
mission ? If any one asks why I, the founder of the 
missions of the parent Board, have given so much of 
this narrative to trace the origin and history of this 
institution, I need only answer him by requesting 
that he will pause and think what would have been 
to-day the condition of our mission in India without 



340 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

that Orphanage. Let him turn back to page 225, and 
read that and the three pages following. He can 
then imagine the aspect which the work of the parent 
Board would present to-daj in the Gangetic Yalley to 
any one who visited it. Take a single item, our na- 
tive ministry ; what would they have ever been to our 
work with no wives, or only heathen ones ? But this 
institution has furnished cultivated and converted 
wives to sixty of their number ; the educated daugh- 
ters of the first married have furnished a few more 
lately, while others are under training, and are grad- 
uating year after year '*' help meets," indeed, for our 
rising ministry. Some of these precious ones have 
already passed away. Let me here present a sample 
of this class of helpers which the Orphanage has 
turned out, taking one of the fi rst, who died last year, 
and ffivin^: the substance of the " memoir" which the 
Conference committee presented, and which was 
published in their Annual Minutes : 

"Mes. Helen M. Paul. 
^' Helen M'Gregor, the beloved wife of our brother 
Rev. A. C. Paul, was born about 1846. Left an or- 
phan at a very early age, she was taken by the gov- 
ernment authorities, and, at the close of the Mutiny, 
in 1858, was made over to our mission in Lucknow 
for care and education. She remained in the Girls' 
Orphanage, after its removal to Bareilly, acting as 
pupil-teacher, until, in 1863, she was united in mar- 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 341 

riage with Brother Ambica Charn Paul, being the 
first of a long line of girls to go out from our Orphan- 
age to form new homes throughout all J^orth India. 
Her marriage was a happy one, and she was the wor- 
thy, loving mother of five daughters and two sons. 

'' Sister Paul died at Barabanki, October 8, 1883, 
after many months of suffering and prostration. She 
triumphed in her dying hour, and so well prepared 
was she, and so willing to depart, even though her 
family was so dear to her, and she loved her mission 
work, that death to her was more a translation than 
the gloomy thing so often feared and pictured. For 
her, death had lost its sting and the grave its victory. 
She was an earnest Christian, a kind and loving wife 
and mother, a faithful and successful worker among 
the women of her husband's parish, a hospitable 
friend and neighbor, careful to entertain strangers, 
and, having finished the work given her to do, has 
gone to receive an unfa(^mg crown beyond these 
scenes of toil and suffering." 

Without these precious girls we could have had no 
work among the women, no female hospitals, no ze- 
nana visitation or girls' schools, no Christian homes, 
no equalized congregations, and no perfect social 
Christianity. They have crowned the work of the 
parent Board, and have been the leading influence 
of its wide extension. May God's rich blessing ever 
rest upon all who responded to my appeal from 
that Dewanee-Khass, and aided in the origin of this 



342 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

invaluable institution, as well as upon those who 
have since given their sympathy and help for its 
present development. Precious girls ! when I looked 
upon them last year, in all their intelligence, Chris- 
tian culture, and usefulness, and remembered what 
they were saved from (though probably not one of 
them is aware of the fearful vortex on the margin 
of which she was floating away so helplessly twenty- 
four years ago), how grateful I became! I could 
not but realize that, if my humble life has never 
been of any other use to the world than this one 
result, I could go down to the grave forever grateful, 
that to me was given the opportunity of saving these 
poor Hindu girls for the blessed and happy position 
which they occupy to-day. 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 343 



CHAPTEE YIIL 

** That day shall dawn 1 Its calm and hallowed rest 

Shall emblem here the Sabbath of the blest. 

Tliough lingering clouds obstruct the glorious light, 

Though wrathful foes withstand Messiah's might, 

The trembling captives cast their bonds away, 

And spring to light, and bless the opening day. 

His mild evangelists His way prepare ; 

His living word Messiah's heralds bear ; 

Through heathen lands the Gospel trumpet sounds, 

'Gainst Antichrist's unhallowed throne rebounds, 

Dissolves dark Superstition's direful spell, 

Assails tiie atheist sophistry of hell, 

Lays Babel's towering turrets in the dust, 

And bids the poor in boundless mercy trust." — Mrs. Bulmer. 

It was a great privilege to be in time to attend the 
closing exercises of our Theological Seminary. I 
had watched its founding and development with the 
deepest interest, and now to be present and witness 
the graduation of its students, as they went forth 
equipped for their great work, became one of the 
highest privileges of this extraordinary journey. 'No 
land needs a trained ministry more than India does, 
and it is certainly to the credit of our Church that 
she possesses this efficient Methodist theological 
school in this geographical center of her North India 
territory. 

A few facts in regard to its history (furnished by 
Rev. Dr. Scott, the theological tutor) will be of in- 



344 Fkom Boston to Bareillt. 

terest. For fourteen years they had no regular 
method of training native preachers. This was left 
mainly to the individual effort of the missionaries. 
They had something of an Annual and District Con- 
ference course of study marked out, but at best such 
courses could not be made effective. The need of a 
theological school pressed upon them. In 1872 the 
India Conference availed itself of a generous offer 
from Rev. D. W. Thomas, a member of the Confer- 
ence, and a theological seminary was inaugurated. 
Providentially Brother Thomas had money and was 
able to give $20,000 toward the seminary. This was 
for the endowment of scholarships; as the first con- 
sideration was something with which to sustain the 
students who were ready to be trained. Their pupils 
being without home or friends, or support as Chris- 
tians, it was necessary to aid them while getting an 
education. Hence the need of scholarship endow- 
ments at once. They turned a native preacher's 
house into a seminary building, improvised dormito- 
ries from a row of huts that had been occupied by 
native Christian families, and with Brother Thomas 
as the principal, and Dr. Scott to assist in the teaching, 
they made a commencement. They began with about 
a dozen students, who worked through a three-years' 
course of study, and grand preachers most of them 
became. The standard of entrance to the school was 
not placed very high, for they needed men and it was 
the day of small things. They have since made the 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 345 

standard of entrance more difficult. After a few 
years, partly to supply Christian teachers for tlieir 
schools, and partly to furnish a preparatory depart- 
ment for the theological seminary, a normal and high 
school was opened in connection with the seminary. 
Meantime Mr. Thomas had yisited the United States, 
and secured from camp-meetings and individuals en- 
dowments for some thirty-six additional scholarships. 
Each year brought a new class, who either in becom- 
ing Christians lost all, or in abandoning other pursuits 
for study needed these scholarships. The generosity 
of E. Eemington, Esq., of Ilion, N. Y., enabled them 
to erect, in 1875, a beautiful building with chapel 
room, library hall, and recitation rooms complete. We 
present here a picture of this building : Dormitories 
were expanded for the increasing number of students. 
More recently the institution has been registered or 
incorporated by the government of ISTorth India to 
give their board of trustees legal authority in holding 
and controlling its property and funds. Thus they 
have moved forward, doing a most important work 
■for the native ministry and the evangelization of the 
country. Eighty-nine regular graduates have passed 
out, with thirty who have taken a partial course, 
making one hundred and eleven native missionaries 
who have been trained in this school of the prophets. 
Four of these have gone to work in other missions — = 
one for the Baptist brethren at Delhi, and three for 
the Presbyterians at Rajpootana. 



346 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

It may be interesting to the reader to know some- 
thing more particularly about the organization and 
internal economy. The curriculum of study is sub- 
stantially the same as pursued by students of theolog- 
ical institutions in America. Of course they have 
adaptations of some things to India. Drill is close 
and hard, and examinations are sharp and thorough. 
The classic languages of India are studied, viz. : San- 
skrit, Persian, and Arabic. Students are generally 
married men. Married life begins early in India. 
Each married student is allowed two small rooms, un- 
furnished. In the rooms he will place a couple of 
small cots, a box, perhaps a little table, an earthen- 
ware lamp, very cheap, a few brass cooking utensils, 
and he is ready for life and study in a theological 
school. The scholarship allowances will seem wonder- 
fully small in the United States. The married 
students receive, at the present value of the rupee, 
about $4 a month, and unmarried students about 
$2 40 a month. In the normal school department 
married students get $2 40 a month, and single stu- 
dents $1 40 a month. With these sums they furnish 
their rooms, feed and clothe themselves, and furnish 
their own books. The seminary has been at work for 
twelve years, and now has a fair supply of buildings, 
the result of donations and partial help from our Mis- 
sionary Society. Fifty-seven scholarships have been 
founded, meeting their present want. But a press- 
ing NECESSITY is endowment in support of teachers. 



Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 347 

The Mission Board supplies only the salary of the 
principal. In the seminary proper, and in the nor- 
mal school department, four or five other teachers are 
employed for whom no endowment has yet been se- 
cured. So far these teachers have been paid from the 
income of the scholarship endowment. This much- 
regretted necessity has greatly crippled the efficiency 
of the institution. The present aim is to raise $12,000 
for the endowment of a native professor's chair. 
This sum will yield a sufficient salary in India. Their 
board of trustees have decided that any one donating 
a sum sufficient to found a chair shall have the privi- 
lege of naming the chair. Will not some generous- 
hearted brother or sister come forward and, by assum- 
ing the whole or the largest part of this sum, claim 
this privilege ? 

This is the first Methodist Theological Seminary 
in Asia. It has already done a noble work in supply- 
ing one hundred and eleven native missionaries to the 
field, besides preparing a number of Christian teach- 
ers. The opening is a grand one in the pressing de- 
mand for trained men in this rapidly expanding 
mission work. India pleads for something worthy of 
the great opening presented there. This institution 
is educating a ministry for a population as large as 
half the population of the United States, and in a 
language spoken by one hundred millions of people. 
They are looking to this present year to fit them for 
enlarged usefulness, l^owhere can money be bo- 



348 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

stowed for more effective work in the salvation of 
souls. This seminary should he raised at once to the 
highest condition of effectiveness. Now is the time 
to put a shoulder to this wheel. We are on the eve 
of mighty moral and social revolutions in the vast 
pagan world. The great deep, especially in India 
and Japan, is breaking up. The Church should move 
forward with all its wisdom and power at this su- 
preme moment. Anti-Christianity is already trying 
to preempt the field. Agents of skepticism from 
Christian lands are now on the ground. Islam is en- 
dowing great colleges. Buddhism is reconstructing 
its base. Here is where the Church's great battle 
against Paganism will be fought out. The day that 
sees idolatry surrender in India will see its doom 
every-where. Under God, our hope of this grand 
victory rests largely in such a cultured and sanctified 
ministry as has begun to go forth from this school of 
the prophets. With increased means they could con- 
fer upon them that more adequate culture which the 
impending conflict will so much require, and also pro- 
vide room for the larger number which the growing 
wants of their work demand ; so that they may be en- 
abled to follow up and utilize the success which God 
is giving them. 

My readers may be interested in looking over the 
programme of exercises on the day in question, when 
these seven students were graduated. The number 
is usnally larger, sometimes as high as thirteen : 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 349 

BAEEILLY THEOLOGICAL SEMINAEY. 



CLOSING EXERCISES FOR GRADUATING CLASS, 1883, 

Saturday^ Deceiriber 1^^ 11 A. M. 



FI^OG-RAMME. 

SINGING AND PRATER. 

ADDRESSES BY GRADUATES. 

"His Ministers a Flame of Fire," ) PivX 'T 

Khadimon ko dg kd shuala bandy d, ) 

The Word in Time, ) . p , 
Jo bdt waqt par kahijdti kyd Jcliub hai, f 

How the Gospel entered India and gratitude for it, \ 
Injil kyunkar HindusfAn men pahuuchi, aur us ke dne > John "W. Todd. 
k% shukr-guzdri, ) 

NATIVE MUSIC. 

Self-sacrifice, ) -vrr. nr o 

Apndinkdrkarnd,\ Warren M. Scott. 

Christ the Life, ) o > tt 

'^Zindagi Mam hun,'^ \ Samil Harry. 



NATIVE MUSIC. 



" Labor omnia vincit," 

Mihnat se sab kuchh ho saktd hai 



. [■ , Nabi Bakhsh. 

Success in the Ministry, ) -r - r q 

Waiz Us taur se kdmydb ho, \ -bKiKA biNG. 

NATIVE MUSIC. 

Brief Report of the School, Remarks by Visitors, 

Reading of Standings, Delivering of Diplomas, 

Doxology and Benediction. 



Graduating Class Sermon, Sunday, 9th By the Principal. 

Annual Sermon, Sunday, 16th, at 10 A. M By Rev. R. Hgskins. 

Alumni Sermon at 3 P. M By Kallu Sixg. 



350 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

Four of the young men bear English names, inti- 
mating that thej came through our Boys' Orphanage 
and have the names of their American patrons. The 
English rendering is given of the theme, which was 
read in the Hindustanee. 

I was requested to preside and say a few words to 
each student before handing him his diploma. The 
first whom Dr. Scott brought forward and introduced, 
as standing at the head of his class, was a brother 
without any caste distinction at all, and whom any 
Brahmin in the land would affect to look down upon 
with contempt. Yet here he was, by general consent, 
the first in his class for all excellence. Such is the 
fruit of Christianity. How grandly the divine pur- 
pose in this respect was illustrated at the Mela at 
Ajudhiya, a few weeks since, will be referred to far- 
ther on. 

In introducing the last student to me, Dr. Scott 
said, " And this, sir, is a Presbyterian." How odd it 
sounded — a Presbyterian student graduating in a 
Methodist theological seminary ! The doctor saw my 
surprise and amusement, and in explanation said: 
" When you came up country alone in 1856, our good 
Presbyterian brethren at Allahabad made you a pres- 
ent of one of their students, that you might have some 
one to begin with, and you will remember how faith- 
fully that gift. Brother Joel, stood by you, and still 
stands an example to our rising ministry. So, when 
our Presbyterian brethren in Pajpootana, who have 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 351 

no theological seminary of their own, asked us to train 
a student for them at their expense, we gladly and 
gratefully consented, and this is the third whom we 
have graduated for them. I was delighted, and could 
not but remark that with all our respect for evangel- 
ical alliance, I regarded this fact as one of the most 
beautiful and expressive illustrations of real Christian 
union that I had ever known. I gave the young man 
as hearty a hand-shake as he ever received, and said : 
" When you return to our Presbyterian brethren in 
Rajpootana, give them my love, and tell them that 
while you are the third installment we have paid for 
Brother Joel, we are willing to pay the same amount 
over again, if they so desire, ere we feel our obliga- 
tion is fairly met." 

A large flag floated from the staff on the top of the 
seminary all the time we were there, having the 
words, "Welcome to the founders of the mission, 
1856-1883," in three languages upon it — the Hindu- 
stanee, the Hindee, and the English. So, of course, 
almost every one in Bareilly knew we were there, 
and the interest resulting was considerable. Several 
of the old native gentlemen who knew me in the 
Sepoy rebellion days came to see me. Some of them 
were present at the reception tendered us on the 
evening of the closing exercises, and the kind neigh- 
borly spirit which they evinced was very pleasant. 
Here were the men, some of whom knew that myself 
and family were doomed to die the death as soon as 



352 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

Khan Bahadur seized power in May, 1857. How 
certain our fate must have seemed to them ! Yet, 
when the day (31st of May) came, and they beheld 
the JSTawab's vengeance wreaked on the fifteen En- 
glish gentlemen whom he seized and executed, the 
missionary and his wife and two children were not 
among the victims. I have no means of knowing 
what they thought then, but certainly, at this recep- 
tion, twenty-six years after, it was evident enough 
that they were truly glad that we had not been 
hanged, but were here now in life and health once 
more among them. The conciliation of views and 
feelings toward Christianity which they admitted, 
and the kind words of appreciation of our native 
ministry and our church members which they spoke, 
were very gratifying to me. Christianity is evident- 
ly telling, and that in its highest and best sense, upon 
the thoughtful minds of thousands who have not yet 
embraced it, but are beginning to recognize its value 
and its truth. 

The commanding position of our mission premises 
in Bareilly, occupying both sides of the main street, 
has been often referred to by those who have visited 
our mission. Bishop Foster's eulogium is especially 
kind and appreciative. But I could not fail toj recall 
to mind the limited views of some of my associates 
when I resolved, in addition to what we had then, to 
secure the site on which the theological seminary 
and the church stand to-day. One of these good 



Fbom Boston to Baeeillt. 353 

brethren was now magnanimous enough to remind 
me of their want of sympathy with me in that trans- 
action. He said : " Brother Butler, when you took 
the responsibihty of securing the lot on that side of 
the road for our work, you remember we thought you 
were going too fast, and making unnecessary provis- 
ion for the future. But how evident it is now that 
we were mistaken and that you were right. Often 
have we expressed our gratitude that you acted on 
your own broader views in the matter, and secured 
it for us when it could be done. How complete and 
powerful its possession has made our mission. You 
secured it for us, too, at a small outlay, but no money 
that we could command would buy it for us to-day." 
Yery generous it was of this good brother to make 
this admission, and what a justification to my own 
mind that I had sought and followed the guidance of 
God in thus providing for the rising wants of his 
work and the blessed future toward which I then ap- 
prehended we were working, and which I expected 
would justify my action. 

The Sabbath was probably the grandest day in all 
our Christian life ; and this is saying so much it makes 
me pause ; yet still I can dare reaffirm it as m}'' con- 
viction. Its crowded and holy services contrasted so 
gloriously with that weary Sabbath in 1857, when 
we were here for the first time alone ; no congrega- 
tion, no fellow-worshipers, no sign of a Sabbath — all 
seculM- and idolatrous — our harps hung on the wil- 



354: From Boston to Baeeilly. 

lows, and " we wept as we remembered Zion." How 
sad that day was ! It required all the faith we conld 
muster to bear up and hope for the better day that was 
to come, when our wonder-working God was to " make 
a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." 
And now 

" That day has dawned ! " 

and we are here to behold its glorious light. How 
true, how appropriate to us, we felt the divine word 
to be, that twenty-six years ago we clung to in that 
" dark and cloudy day," the naked promise of our 
God, without the first external sign to encourage us : 
" He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious 
seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring- 
ing his sheaves with him." 

The beautiful church was crowned that morning 
with a congregation of native Christians, whose tidy 
appearance and devout and intelligent aspect w^as a 
joy to behold. I think I am not partial in saying that 
I have not seen in all India an audience more worthy 
of this remark. It was also so good to see such a pre- 
ponderance of the woman element in the congrega- 
tion, due, of course, to the presence of the girls from 
the Orphanage, as well as to hear such Christian sing- 
ing in a heathen land as we had there that day. 

As the sermon ended. Dr. Dease, the missionary in 
charge, came forward and said that, before the service 
was closed, there were one or two other things which 
they desired I should do for them — more delightful 



Fkom Boston to Baeeillt. 355 

surprises prepared for ns by our kind friends. He 
explained that they had reserved the candidates for 
full reception belonging to the two quarters, so that I 
might have the joy and honor of receiving them, and 
giving them the right hand of fellowship on behalf 
of the Church at home. He drew forth the list and 
began to read, and did not reach the end until sixty- 
seven names were called. What a sight it was, as 
they came round the communion rails and stood two 
and three deep. More than twenty-five of them were 
orphan girls, and some of them looked so young, that 
I quietly asked the doctor if he considered that all of 
these youthful candidates had " saving faith in 
Christ ? " He smiled and said in reply : " I asked 
that question of Miss Sparkes the day she handed me 
her portion of the list, and she assured me that she 
had held them back from joining in full until she was 
satisfied that each of them was a child of God." He 
added, " You need have no reservation in your mind 
on that point." Of course, after such assurance, I had 
none, but gladly received them all. 

When they had taken their seats Dr. Dease again 
arose and said : " And now, sir, we have another 
pleasant duty which we desire you should also fulfill 
for us. The converts of the quarter from heathenism 
are now to be baptized and received on probation, and 
we wish you. to have this privilege also." He read 
again, and thirty-four answered to their names and 
came around the altar. It was a grand sight, these 



356 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

accessions from heathenism to Christianity. It was a 
matter of satisfaction that so much of my little stock 
of Hindustanee had come back to me, tliat I was able 
to give them the sacred rite in their own language. 
And this was in Bareilly ! The experience of this 
day was unique in my ministerial life. Never before 
have I baptized so many, or received such a number 
into full membership into our Church, in any one 
day. At home it would not be so wonderful. But 
this was Bareilly ! Here, where the first member 
we received became a martyr for her faith. Here 
where we, too, were doomed to die. Here, where so 
many suffered death for Christ on the 81st of May, 
1857, and their bodies lay exposed in the public 
streets. Here, w^here we escaped with the loss of all 
things but life. Here, where we experienced the 
loneliest and saddest Sabbath in our Christian history, 
and where the outlook was then so dreadful for Chris- 
tianity, where the enemies of tlie Lord Jesus held 
their high carnival for full fifteen months ; even here 
had God brought us back to see, and rejoice in the 
wonderful evidence how he could " make the wrath 
of man to praise him," and restrain the remainder of 
wrath. Yes, here, within those communion rails, I 
stood, with a heart full to overflowing and with tears 
of joy, and realized it all as no one else could. How 
conscious I w^as that the blessed Master himself was 
with me as I was honored to receive, there and 
then, one hundred and one members into the Chris- 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 357 

tian Church, nearly one half of the number being 
females ! 

We are assured in the word of God that, in " the 
assemblies of his saints," there is more presence than 
what is visible to mortal eye. " We are made a spec- 
tacle to the world and to angels and to men," " com- 
passed about with a great cloud of witnesses." How 
fully I was impressed with the consciousness of this 
fact that day as I stood there. The divine presence 
was realized with a peculiar power ; but in addition to 
this divine surrounding, a special impression of the 
interest that Maria must have in this scene kept re- 
curring to my thoughts all through those reception 
and baptismal services, until she seemed so manifest- 
ly before my mind, that I came to the conclusion that 
it had probably pleased the blessed Lord to grant 
that the soul of the martyred girl (whose mutilated 
body was lying under the rose-hedge only a few 
minutes' walk from w^here I was standing) the privi- 
lege of being present to look once more on the face of 
her old pastor and witness the joy of his heart that 
day as he received or baptized these one hundred and 
one candidates, half of them of her own sex, into 
the communion of the Church for whose sake she suf- 
fered death ! I never had such a vivid impression of 
the presence of any of the sainted dead. To me at 
least it seemed very real ; indeed, the highest realiza- 
tion I have ever known as to 

" How thinly the vail intervenes " 



858 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

between ourselves and the spirits of tlie just made 
perfect, whom we are so soon to join. 

Speaking of these orphan girls at Bareilly, and of 
what they have become and are yet to become to 
Christianity in India, I am reminded of an incident 
that occurred in one of the audiences which I ad- 
dressed. There were probably six hundred persons 
present, nearly all of them native Christians. Babu 
Ram Chander Bose was my interpreter on the occasion, 
and he is certainly one of the most competent of his 
class. He stood on one side of the pulpit and I on 
the other, and without a moment's hesitation, as fast 
as I uttered the thought in English, he poured it out 
in his fluent Hindustanee. The audience was in- 
tensely interested, as they usually are, in this style of 
addressing them. I was making three points as to the 
object of missionaries in coming to India : to give 
them a true religion, a sanctified education, and to 
create the Christian home. All went smoothly till 
I pronounced my third position, when the Babu sud- 
denly stopped and looked round him confused. For 
a moment I supposed he was ill. But turning to tlie 
missionaries sitting behind us, he asked, " Brethren, 
what am I to do with that word ? In the sense in 
which Dr. Butler is using it, we have no term in our 
language by which I can render his word home. I 
can translate it " house " or " family," but neither 
would express his meaning, yet I can get no nearer. 
What am I to do?" 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 359 

I stood and looked at tlie cultured Babu in his 
inability, knowing that if he could not translate the 
word adequately probably no one else of his race 
could. He had been twice in America ; had seen 
" the Christian home," and knew exactly what it was, 
and how it ought to be represented. But there he 
stood and was helpless. This was, perhaps, one of the 
highest compliments ever paid to the Christian re- 
ligion. The Babu could not find the term in his vo- 
cabulary, for the sufficient reason that the thing it 
expresses is not to be found in the condition of his 
country. Heathenism has but little need for the 
word. They have sacrificed the possibility of its true 
meaning by their treatment of woman and their sen- 
timents in regard to her. Their miserable civiliza- 
tion has involved them in this penalty. Polygamy, 
either as a fact or a possibility, banishes the idea of 
home from any land over which it spreads its dark 
shadow. The happiest wife in India knows well that, 
though she may to-day be alone with her lord, and 
without a rival in his affection, that to-morrow all this 
may be changed. With or without any reason on her 
part — without any failure of her duty or affection — 
her lord and master may choose to become fickle, his 
love may wander and find other attractions, and with- 
out a note of warning she may at any hour find her- 
self supplanted, and a stranger introduced into the 
" family " or " house." 

ISTor would she dare even to protest ; for well she 



360 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

knows that both her religion and the law justifies her 
husband in so doing. And any rebellion on her part 
against the deep wrong done her can be suddenly 
ended by her punishment and expulsion. ISTo ; no 
true, no Christian home is there, and cannot be, so 
long as their vile religion regulates their family life. 
If to this license you add ignorance, then the chain 
which binds woman's condition is dark as well as 
galling. Only Christianity can create the home. That 
fragment of Eden which has survived the fall, un- 
der the merciful arrangements of Him who ordained 
holy matrimony, is still guarded by his justice, and 
made possible to those alone who accept his condi- 
tion of 

" Loving one only and being true to her." 

He enjoins the measure of that true and manly 
affection, when his holy providence has guided the 
two sinxiere and honest hearts together. At his altar, 
as the gentle hand of the trusting woman is placed in 
the hand of him who then covenants before God and 
man "to love, honor, and cherish her, and forsaking 
all other, cleave only unto her as long as they both 
«hall live," the Author of this blessed institution adds, 
to the heart and conscience of the happy bridegroom, 
" Now love her as Christ also loved the Church." Here 
is God's own foundation for the Christian home ; the 
rest, for its culture and sanctity, depends upon them- 
selves. A home, too, where its children, the fruit of their 
affection, are gladly welcomed as the gifts of heaven. 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 361 

to be trained for glory, honor, and immortality; where 
the family altar is sustained in its midst, and divine 
benedictions sanctify the joys and sorrows of their 
daily lives. What scope God intended should be 
given in this sanctuary of the affections for the exer- 
cise of the tenderest charities of life, its mutual help- 
fulness and sweetest sympathies ! 

Without Eve, Paradise was but a solitude to the 
most perfect man of our race. It is still woman, thus 
honored, that with her cultured affection, her devotion 
and unquestioning trust, forms the Christian home ; 
which makes a paradise for the poor man as well as 
for the rich, for the cottage as for the palace ; for there 
the loving wife reigns as queen and fears no rival. 
" Her children rise up and call her blessed ; her hus- 
band also, and he praiseth her." Such homes are the 
creations of Christianity, and they flourish most wliere 
its influence is most felt. Christianity enriches the 
language and the civilization of every land which it 
enters, as it renews the heart and life of each individ- 
ual who receives it. " Old things are passed away ; be- 
liold, all things become new." The new life demands 
a home suitable to its own peace and joy, and Chris- 
tianity stands ready to create it for all its true disciples. 
As the vernacular has no word to express the idea of 
such a home, so it has none to properly define regen- 
eration and its associated blessings, and the people 
must either go to their ancient classics to find a phrase 
for them, or coin the requisite terms. But as sure 



362 From Boston to Baeeillt. 

as tills new thing is born in their land, like the manna 
in the wilderness, a worthy name will be found for 
it, bj which it will henceforth be designated and rec- 
ognized. 

Already such homes are beginning to dot the great 
valley. Our female Orphanage, under God, is doing 
its part toward their creation, and the number and 
culture of them are increasing. 

The second generation is building them better than 
the first, and "the rise in blessing" is still before 
them. I saw some of these homes. One of our 
most pleasant recollections is where we were invited 
to go and share their humble evening meal, and 
when the repast was ended, the dear woman laid the 
word of God before me, and said, " Sahib, wont you 
please read a portion and pray with us before you 
go ? " Yes, surely, here was the very thing that Babu 
Bose could not call by name, but which this Hindu 
Methodist wife and mother knew by experience as a 
fact in the humble little sanctuary where her daily 
life is spent. 

Our Boys' Orphanage, at Shahjahanpore, forty-three 
miles east from Bareilly, was our next point of inter- 
est. Its origin and history have been intimated al- 
ready in speaking of the Orphanage at Bareilly. 
This institution, also, has fully answered our hojDCS, 
and has become of untold blessing to our mission 
work. The number of children received into it 
has been smaller than what the Girls Orphanage ad- 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 863 

mitted. But tliose in charge of it, and especially 
Brothers Johnson and Bare, have equal reason to be 
grateful for the results attained, as have the devoted 
ladies who guided the interests of the Bareillj Or- 
phanage. 

I found every thing at Shahjahanpore in a very sat- 
isfactory condition. It is, in fact, a good industrial 
school, where, in addition to an excellent Christian 
education, our boys are taught to earn their living by 
various trades and industries, as well as by the cultiva- 
tion of the land around the institution. Shoe-making, 
cabinet-making, blacksmithing, rope-making, tailor- 
ing, and other trades are taught, and all do what they 
can. It is a pleasant and busy scene, and they have the 
aspect of being a God-fearing, intelligent, and happy 
band of boys. Here, too, we had a delightful recep- 
tion, hearty addresses, and a joyful time generally 
with these dear lads. A little gift from my wife 
furnished them with the " fire-works " with which 
they finished up their celebration ; and no Fourth of 
July boys at home could be more jubilant than these 
were that evening. Indeed, human nature is very 
much alike all over this world. It is especially so, as 
similar conditions of intelligence and religious entliu- 
siasm come into action. The experiences and their 
manifestations then become almost identical, and 
you realize what a true brotherhood these make for 
humanity every-where. The bar of clime, color, and 
language sinks out of sight, and you have a delight- 



864: Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

ful consciousness of the wide meaning of our Lord's 
language when he stretched forth his hand toward 
his disciples, and said : '' Whosoever [Hindu, Chi- 
nese, or American alike] shall do the will of my 
Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, 
and sister, and mother." 

Here we have Heaven's own remedy for the caste 
distinctions, aristocratic exclusiveness, and pride of 
race, which have so long separated men and cursed 
the world. It is well for us to remember that we 
Gentiles were once all alike involved in the common 
ruin, when we " were without Christ, being aliens 
from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from 
the covenants of promise, having no hope, and with- 
out God in the world : but now, in Christ Jesus, ye 
who sometime were far off are made nigh by the 
blood of Christ." For he " came and preached peace 
to you which were afar off, and to them that were 
nigh. For through him we both have access by one 
Spirit unto the Father," and are ^' no more strangers 
and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and 
of the household of God." Into this blessed brother- 
hood of salvation and peace, through atoning blood, 
the last of men are welcome, the farthest off and the 
greatest stranger is especially and cordially invited by 
our common Father,' " who will have all men to be 
saved," and who has" laid it as an obligation upon 
those already saved to invite the rest to come and be 
saved too. How " glorious " the Gospel appears as 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 365 

one stands amid these crowded bazaars, and realize 
that this is its nature and purpose, and that this will 
be its blessed result to them also ! Truly, we are 
debtors " both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians ; 
both to the wise, and to the unwise ;" for w^e owe 
them' the Gosjpel^ and will owe it until the last man 
on earth has had it given to him. Doubtless, as we 
toil for God, we are " building better than we know," 
for we are finding out and preparing material to aid 
in the erection of that " holy temple," of which the 
Lord Jesus is " the chief corner-stone," and saved and 
glorified humanity will be the component parts. 

]^o one race nor clime can furnish all that is neces- 
sary for its beauty and perfection. When complete 
it will be evident enough that its " Builder and 
Maker " obtained its materials from many lands, and 
even from the ends of the earth. Like those dissimi- 
lar but magnificent pillars of alabaster, malachite, por- 
phyry, and marble — the gifts of crowned heads of 
various countries, which constitate the most promi- 
nent ornaments of that splendid church of St. Paul's, 
outside the gates of Ostia, so the Lord Jesus is hav- 
ing materials sought out and prepared whose variety 
and loveliness will form forever the leading attrac- 
tions of that living temple of our God. And, surely, 
India — gorgeous India — is to furnish some of that 
redeemed humanity, whose nature and quality will 
be found at last possessed of the perfection and 
polish which will render them capable of bearing 



366 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

that glorious prominence and ornamentation of wliicli 
tlie divine Architect speaks when he says, " I will 
make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he 
shall go out thence no more : and I will write upon 
him the name of my God, and the name of the city 
of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down 
out of heaven from my God, and mine own new 
name.'' — Revised Version. 

But we are wandering away from those dear orphan 
boys. It was a pleasure to be informed by the mis- 
sionary in charge, Brother Bare, that a large number 
of them meet in class and enjoy religion ; and, also, 
that many of the elder ones are helping in the good 
work by Sunday-school teaching, by assisting in the 
singing in the bazaar services, and by accompanying 
the preachers to the villages around to teach the peo- 
ple. The native pastor is the Rev. W. E,. Bowen, 
one of the original orphan boys, and now a good 
minister of Jesus Christ. It was very pleasant to sit 
and talk with Brother Bowen of that first band of 
boys. As name after name was called from the list 
in my hands, he was able to furnish me with valuable 
information of many of them as to his school days, 
his conversion and life, what he became, who he 
married, and where he is now, and how engaged. 
Boys who are brought up together know one another 
well, and their testimony as to each other's religious 
and Christian character is seldom extravagant, and 
generally very reliable. It made it all the more 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 367 

pleasant, therefore, to me, as I gave the name of his 
associates, twenty or more years ago, one after the 
other, to hear Brother Bowen say of so many, " Sa- 
hib, he was good," or " nice," or '' excellent," as the 
case might be. It is very encouraging that they 
thus hold each otlier in respect, and that there was 
so httle of a contrary character to qualify this gen- 
erous regard. 

I found it more difficult to trace the history of the 
orphan boys than those of the girls. This might 
have been expected. But I have done all that was 
practicable to obtain the facts concerning them, and 
now present the ascertained results of that Orphanage 
to the cause of Christ within the bounds of the North 
India Conference. The Shahjahanpore Orphanage 
has given to the mission since its origin the fol- 
lowing educated helpers : 

Doctors and Apothecaries 4 

Colporteurs 4 

School Teachers 2'7 

Exhorters 8 

Now in the Theological Seminary 4 

Local Preachers employed in the work 41 

Members of Conference 19 

Total Christian workers 107 

Besides these there are 36 engaged in secular em- 
ployment as artisans, servants, farmers, railway and 
government service, etc., who are members in our 
Church and congregations, making a total of 143 



368 Feom Bosto2^ to Baijeilly. 

saved to Christianity by that Orphanage. This leaves, 
as nearly as I could ascertain, 39, who must be ac- 
counted for by deaths, removals, and failures, making 
a total of 182, besides the 158 boys who are still in 
the Orphanage. This, too, is a record for which our 
Church may well feel deeply grateful to God. Both 
Orphanages have fulfilled our every hope, and have 
been of immense blessing to our work, and are des- 
tined to be far more useful in the days to come. 
For the results achieved and the hopes we cherish we 
render our devout and adoring thanks to God. 

Within a few miles of Shahjahanpore is one of our 
two Christian villages. We have about eight hundred 
acres of land, granted by the government, where we 
not only provide for persecuted Christians who are 
turned out of their holdings w^hen they are baptized, 
but also where we can provide for such of our orphan 
boys as do not develop ability to become teachers or 
preachers. Here, as farmers, they can earn a living 
and help the cause as members of the Church or con- 
gregation. The yield of two crops per year makes a 
small amount of land — five to eight acres — sufiicient 
for the support of a family, and the outfit required 
(a pair of bullocks, plow, tools, seed, a central well, 
and a little house and furniture) can all be provided 
for $40 or less. When the house is built and the 
seed is in the ground the young farmer is ready to 
get married, and with a Christian, intelligent wife to 
help him, he is prepared for housekeeping. Yes, and 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 369 

a great deal of happiness is realized in those little 
Christian homes. The pastor of Panapore (the city 
of refuge), as the place is named, is Bev. Horace J. 
Adams (named for his patron in Lowell, Mass.), one 
of the earliest orphan boys. He told me that every 
one in the village is supposed to attend Sunday-school 
and church. In many homes there is a family altar, 
and the place does not contain a Sabbath breaker, not 
a stroke of work being done on the Lord's day. A 
nice little chapel and the school stand at the head of 
the village. The whole enterprise is self-sustaining, 
and the members are trained to do all they are able 
toward the support of their pastor. Money is yet 
but little known there, but they contribute in kind, 
so many quarts of various sorts of grain, which the 
pastor receives and accounts for. As the ability of 
the people increases these contributions augment, and 
less money is required from the Society for the bal- 
ance of the pastor's salary, the expectation being that 
after some years the people will be able to take the 
entire burden, thus becoming self-supporting, and the 
Society be permanently relieved of all expense on 
their account. 

This Christian community now numbers two hun- 
dred and fifty souls, of whom one hundred and ten 
are full members, and thirty-four probationers. Of 
these the patriarch is old Yakub (Hindustanee for 
Jacob), who was one of the first in the valley to em- 
brace the Christian faith. He is now one hundred 
24 



370 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

and three years old, has a rich experience, and is be- 
loved by all. He is still able to go round among the 
people and advise and influence them for good, and 
seems to be in possession of all his faculties. It was 
pleasant to be remembered by the dear old man, and 
be so heartily welcomed back again, by him. 

And now for Nynee Tal and the mountain district 
of our work in India. Here, too, we find the great 
improvements which are quietly spreading over the 
land. An excellent road now connects Bareilly with 
l^ynee Tal, seventy-four miles northward. It was 
impossible, as we entered the comfortable carriage, to 
forget that night of gloom in 1857, when we left in 
our uncomfortable doolies, under the liability of being 
pursued by the Sepoys, and if not, we had the risks 
of the malarious Terai to face. But now the carriage 
brought us to the Lai Kua (the red well), in the cen- 
ter of the Terai, ere day faded. Here was the scene 
of that memorable prayer (mentioned in The Lmid 
of the Veda), where, at the midnight hour, God 
wrought out for us, in answer, that wonderful escape 
from those " perils in the wilderness," which can 
never be forgotten by us, either in time or in eter- 
nity. To pass the place withoiit stopping was out of 
the question. As soon as we reached the locality I 
ordered the driver to halt, and, taking off my hat, 
entered the forest, and stood on the spot where, with 
uncovered head, that dreadful night, I so agonizingly 
implored divine deliverance, when human help had 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 371 

utterly failed, and a fearful death seemed so immi- 
nent if those bearers should abandon us and take 
away the only torch, as they declared they must for 
their own protection in returning to their station out- 
side the Terai ! I trust the gratitude now, twenty- 
six years after, was not unworthy before God of the 
prayer and wonderful deliverance which he then so 
promptly sent us. The locality is as much infested, 
all the way up to Huldwanee, by the " royal Bengal 
tigers" and leopards to-day as it was then. In evi- 
dence, I need only mention that I requested my good 
friend, the governor. Sir Henrj^ Ramsay, to let me 
have three tiger and three leopard skins to take back 
to America. He promised, and they were shot in 
that Terai last April and sent after me. The largest 
— now on the floor of our sitting-room — has a face 
nearly as big as a bullock and measures over eleven 
feet long. Since I left India the railway has been 
completed through the Terai, and wliat a terror the 
screani of the engine and the glare of the head-light 
must be now to those fierce brutes as the train rushes 
for nearly twenty miles through their wild domain ! 

Beautiful E'ynee Tal ! It looked lovelier than ever 
as we entered it again last year. The little settlement 
has grown into a great sanitarium. We have here a 
self-supporting English Church ; but our native w^ork 
has not been developed as it might be, or as its early 
history led me to hope it would be. It made me sad 
to see our native church — the first erected in our mis- 



372 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

sion — rented as a store, and religious services crowded 
inconveniently into the school-house. It seemed to 
me to be a desecration of what had been so solemnly 
dedicated to the worship of God. I do not know 
who advised this course; the object was, I under- 
stand, to obtain by the rent more help to carry on 
the native work. I may wound the feelings of some 
one in uttering these words, if they should reach In- 
dia, but cannot help it. I must be excused, for I col- 
lected the means and built that church, and I have 
a conviction that its restoration to its original use and 
purpose must take place in order that our native work 
may be prosperous in ^ynee Tal as well as our En- 
glish work. This was the only thing in all our mis- 
sion that caused me pain ; and it was the more keenly 
felt because the prosperity of the native work filled 
"US wdth such delight every-where else tliat we went. 
I cannot but hope that this error, as I regard it, will 
soon be rectified, and God's house be restored to his 
service, and the requisite help for the work be other- 
wise provided for. 

Engineering skill has, as far as we can judge, made 
the hill-side safe from any further land-slide. We 
lost no part of our ground by the former slide. The 
situation is one of the most central in JSTynee Tal. 
We have over five acres of land, which with the 
little residence I purchased from Judge "Wilson for 
one thousand six hundred and fifty rupees (only eight 
hundred dollars), and it would to-day bring probably 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 373 

three or four times its original cost if we were dis- 
posed to part with it. The growth of the place re- 
quires not only the restoration of the church to its 
proper purpose, but also another chapel for the lower 
bazaar and school. 

Our mission agents here are treated by the native 
community in the most cordial manner. Brother 
Kirk (formerly of the South India Conference), one 
of the most devoted of men, is greatly esteemed by 
them. And the native preacher, John Barker, and 
his excellent wife, Remotea (one of Brother Hum- 
phrey's medical class), are so popular with the entire 
native community that they joined in a formal peti- 
tion to Dr. Humphrey, on his return, to have John 
and Remotea re-appointed to J^ynee Tal. They de- 
clared tliey could not do without them, and especially 
without Remotea as a medical lady. So they were 
restored to them. 

One of the most pleasant receptions we had was by 
the natives in this bazaar. They heard of our coming 
up, and were very cordial. The old tradesmen and 
shop keepers, parents of our former scholars, came 
out of their stores into the street in such a kind and 
neighborly way, and welcomed us back again. As 
they stood round my pony, amid other kind things, 
several of them referred gratefully to the great advan- 
tages their boys had derived from the school which we 
had opened there in 1857, even while we were shut 
up and besieged by Khan Bahadur, and told me what 



374: From Boston to Bakeilly. 

profitable situations some of their boys were now fill- 
ing as a result of the education we gave them there. 
They thus esteem us as friends of their families and 
promoters of their welfare, and have become so con- 
ciliated toward Christianity that it was easy to think, 
in reference to many of them, that they were " not 
far from the kingdom of God." That school is now 
self-supporting by the fees which they are willing to 
pay to sustain it, notwithstanding the Christian edu- 
cation we give in it. Dr. Humphrey, whom they 
greatly respect, told me that such is their good-will 
that when his Dispensary began to run out of medi- 
cine, he had only to intimate the fact to some of the 
young men whom we have educated, and they would 
go round that bazaar and quietly make up a purse of 
two or three hundred rupees, and bring it to him to 
replenish his stock. Surely there is a harvest ripen- 
ing here that will yield abundant sheaves to some 
future reaper. 

There were eighty present at the Sabbath service 
in the school-house, thirty of whom were native 
Christians. The latter could be picked out from the 
rest at once by their neat and tidy appearance. They 
were bright and intelligent looking. In the lower 
bazaar we had forty-five of a congregation, with a de- 
lightful sacramental service and two baptisms. We 
went to visit the old " Sheep House " (mentioned in 
The Land of the Veda), where our first services were 
held; and then to the beautiful little cemetery, where 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 375 

dear Mrs. Tlioburn and mj own sweet babe and oth- 
ers are awaiting " the resurrection of the dead." 

We had hurried up here thus soon to be in time 
to attend the sessions of the Kumaon District Con- 
ference. None but ourselves can know how won- 
derfully that name sounded in our ears. Twenty- 
seven years ago we stood here on our defense against 
our deadly foes, who were in the gorge below us, 
watching and waiting the hour when they might rush 
up and destroy us, to the last man and woman and 
child. Behind us in these mountains there was not a 
native Christian then, nor a school between this and 
Mussoorie, seventeen days' journey west. The six 
hundred thousand souls scattered in little villa2:es 
down in these valleys and on the sides of these great 
mountains knew nothing of our Saviour. He had 
not a friend or follower among them all. When at 
length our foes below retired, on hearing of the fall 
of Delhi, and we were left in comparative safety, I 
was led, under the pressure of want of means of sub- 
sistence, to venture across these lower Himalayas to 
Landour, above Delhi, where we learned that a bank 
had been opened and I could sell a bill on London, 
and once more have some money. The results of this 
memorable journey have already been given in the 
sixth chapter. Both in going and returning again to 
ISTynee Tal (for we could not yet enter Rohilcund, 
which was still in possession of the Sepoys, the En- 
glish forces being only strong enough to hold Delhi 



376 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

and Lucknow, wliich thej had retaken, and awaited 
the arrival of the troops which were hurrying to their 
help from England) we had the sad evidence all the 
w^ay as to the condition of heathen darkness in which 
these mountaineers were sitting, and had been sitting 
for long ages past ! Most earnest were our pleadings 
with God that the day might dawn soon upon these 
poor benighted people ! And now here we were 
again, twenty-seven years after, about to start from 
ISTynee Tal for Dwarahat — three days' journey into 
the interior — and for w^hat purpose ? To attend a 
Methodist District Conference in the very center of 
Kumaon ! How delightfully true had the words be- 
come, and also as applicable as ever they could have 
been to those of whom they were originally spoken 
"in Galilee of the Gentiles," that " the people which 
sat in darkness saw great light," and "to them 
which sat in the region and shadow of death light is 
sprung up." 

Only photographs can do justice to the wonder- 
ful roads we had to travel during this three days' 
journey. Climbing mountains that were from three 
to five thousand feet high, and then down as deep on 
the other side ; on up a valley for a mile or two, 
and then another rise like the former. We had to 
w^ind round precipices that made the head dizzy to 
look down below to the little river whose roar was 
too far off to be heard at such an elevation ; and 
yet, within an hour or two after, we were fording 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 377 

that very stream. The safest way to go is in a 
" dandy " — a sort of inclosed chair with a pole on 
either side and cross-bars at the ends ; so that six or 
eight men, whose profession this is, can carry you up 
and down and round all these thrilling points in 
safety. They serve you for four annas (twelve and a 
half cents) per day, and go anywhere with you. The 
alternative is to ride on a "tattii" — a long-backed 
and short-legged pony. But on such a journey as this 
many are too timid to venture to ride on even this 
safe and reliable creature, some parts of the narrow 
path being not more than thirty-six inches wide, and 
so steep that you have to clutch the long mane and 
hold on, lest you, saddle and all, should slip off and 
go over the tattii's tail and down the precipice ! 

Eest houses are found at the end of each day's jour- 
ney, called " Dak Bungalows," where food and shelter 
can be obtained ; and welcome sights they are after 
the toilsome travel of the day is over. On the third 
morning we made an early start, as the Conference 
was to open in the forenoon and we wished to be in 
time. By eight o'clock we saw Dwarahat far off on 
the side of a high mountain, but it took us nearly four 
hours more to reach it. We crossed the intervening 
valley and began the last ascent ; and soon after, on 
turning a corner, there was Dwarahat, once famous as 
one of the head-quarters of Himalayan Buddhism. 
Thirteen deserted temples of that faith were right 
before us, and above them stood out, clear and dis- 



378 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

tinct, our Methodist mission buildings. There were 
the church, the parsonage, the school, the dispen- 
sary and hospital, for this station has a native doctor 
resident. It was enough to bring a shout of joy 
from heart and voice to see this blessed sight on that 
grand mount, while the eternal snows of the higher 
Himalayas rose as a glorious background to the 
Christian picture ! 

The road led from this point right up to the church. 
We were a little late, and they had commenced the 
opening service. The Dak Bungalow, where we 
rested and spent a solitary Sabbath on our way to 
Mussoorie in 1857, and from which we looked upon 
these temples, and where we so earnestly prayed that 
light might come into this great darkness, was on our 
right hand as we ascended ; and now here we were, 
" going up to the house of the Lord " in that same 
Dwarahat ! Soon we heard " the voice of singing " 
coming down through the open door to meet us as we 
toiled up. How good it sounded ! We first recog- 
nized the tune, and then the words became distinct. 
They were singing, in their own language, the hymn, 

" 0, 'twas love, 'twas wondrous love, 

The love of Grod to me ! 
It brought ray Saviour from above, 

To die on Calvary." 

Surprised and delighted, I paused to hear the holy 
strains in such a place. They seemed also such a 
prophecy of the future, when even these Himalayas 



Feom Boston to Baretlly. 379 

shall resound with the joy so long foretold : " Let 
the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from 
the top of the mountains ! " The facts and the antici- 
pations were thrilling, and very appropriate to the 
thoughts and feelings of the moment seemed the lines 
of Wordsworth : 

"I listened till I had my fill ; 
And, as I mounted up the hill, 
The music in my heart I bore 
Long after it was heard no more." 

That "music" still sings in our memory, and will 
so sing for many a long day to come. 

We were gladly received by the brethren and sis- 
ters. Fifty-six preachers, teachers, and colporteurs, 
with the agents of the Woman's Foreign Missionary 
Society, were here " in Conference assembled ; " and 
in the congregation were forty-six orphan girls from 
the Ladies' Orphanage at Pauri. They looked so nice 
and intelligent, and devout as well. They had walked 
the whole distance, eighty miles, and barefooted, too 
(shoes not being considered necessary), and did it as a 
privilege to attend the special religious services held 
in connection with the District Conference. The 
language of this mountain district being diiferent 
from that of the plains below, this Orphanage is a 
necessity of our work on the Himalayas. Only four 
American brethren are connected with this District 
Conference; all the rest of the working force is 
native. One of the preachers, baptized by the name 



380 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

of Thomas Williams, was a celebrated Fakir, but was 
grandly saved, and is now a devoted servant of God 
and very useful. 

The order of business seemed to be conducted very 
thoroughly and in the best spirit. This is the 
smallest of the four District Conferences, but I was 
very favorably impressed with the manner and devo- 
tion exhibited. I noted that at the early morning 
service there were one hundred and twenty persons 
present to pray for the blessing of God upon the 
service of the day. My address to the Conference 
was on ministerial fidelity, and its great reward here- 
after. The responses of the brethren showed fully 
that I had their sympathy with me in the consecra- 
tion to their high duty which I urged upon them. 
Those responses fully satisfied me that these men 
were animated with the true spirit of Methodist 
preachers, and that they were worthy of the love and 
confidence of our Church at home. 

During the miscellaneous business, notwithstanding 
their effort to hide from me what they w^ere consult- 
ing about, I caught a few words which intimated that 
they were planning some memorial for presentation 
to us, as an expression of their gratitude, and which 
was to be furnished by the native preachers alone. 
The matter had been started by the Oude District 
Conference, and was now going round the other 
Conferences. I rose to my feet and pleaded with 
them to stop the whole thing ; declaring that I 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly, 381 

could not consent to see them, out of their humble 
allowances, and with the claims of their children for 
education, and their own want of books for their 
studies, going to any expense of this kind on our 
behalf. But all in vain. They rose and pleaded, 
even with tears, that I should not refuse their little 
offering of loving gratitude. Harkua — one of the 
orphan boys, who is a doctor as well as a preacher — 
most tenderly reminded me of the past, and said : 
" Sahib, you are our father ; to you we are indebted 
for what we are to-day ; you surely wont decline the 
humble memorial of our gratitude and affection." 
He broke down and took his seat weeping. So I had 
to submit, or I should have made every man of them 
unhappy. Yery glad they became when I yielded 
consent. And yet, there are some people who wonder 
if the heathen are capable of gratitude ! They carried 
out their purpose, and at the Annual Conference at 
Cawnpore, in December, the presentation was made, 
after the whole group of us were photographed to- 
gether, Joel being placed at my right hand. A beauti- 
ful silver cup to Mrs. Butler, with an Oxford Bible 
for myself, on the fly-leaves of which the native 
preachers had written their names, was their memo- 
rial. The resolutions which passed so cordially at 
this District Conference I need not present, but they 
will be cherished among my treasures as long as I 
live. How little I imagined, much as I expected 
from them, when I took up those dear boys that I 



382 From Boston to Baeeillt. 

should live to see sncli a day as this as the result ! 
Again, thanks be to God for his mercies ! 

Those thirteen temples which stand below our mis- 
sion are all in the usual Buddhist style — massive cut- 
stone erections. Thirteen temples without one wor- 
shiper. " The Light of Asia " has gone out forever 
here. On the continent of India, the birthplace and 
triumph scene of that faith, you find no worshiper at 
Gautama-Buddha's shrine. A prolonged and bloody 
persecution, many hundred years ago, exterminated 
that religion from the land of its birth, and you can 
only find the system in foreign countries, from 
Ceylon to Siam. But the great ruins still remain. 
When at Benares we went out to see the Top at 
Sarnath, the most venerable and leading monument 
of the Buddhist faith, and found an English engi- 
neer with a staff of workmen engaged in putting 
supports and buttresses around the huge pile to keep 
it from tumbling down. Another Englishman, Ed- 
win Arnold, lately gave the world an evidence of 
his skill in propping up this poor, godless system of 
religious opinion. It seems a pity that he was not 
candid enough to give his readers a view of what 
lies beneath the gilded surface of the hopeless faith 
which he attempts to eulogize. Especially should he 
have put a picture of the highest agency of their de- 
votions on his title-page in the form of the " praying 
machine," which is used by them so extensively in 
their homes and temples! But that, though the 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 383 

sad and solemn result of the system, would have 
made people laugh at its absurdity, and the author 
of " The Light of Asia " preferred to act as do cer- 
tain other artists with the repulsive objects which 
the facts in the scene before them presents to view, 
when 

" Whate'er offends the sense, 

The painter casts discreetly into shade." 

Certainly the day of judgment will have no re- 
wards to confer upon writers of this class, for such 
services as these. Poor Burmah, with a savage 
murderer on the throne, whom the English govern- 
ment cannot hold diplomatic intercourse with, on 
account of his enormous barbarity, even toward his 
own flesh and blood, is a poor recommendation of the 
civilization produced by " The Light of Asia ;" and 
yet no nation is more orthodox in its Buddhism than 
is that dark and bleeding land ; and the monster 
emperor was raised and educated a priest of the sys- 
tem, and knows it well. There was a report that his 
majesty, or the king of Siam, was about to confer 
the honor of " The Order of the White Elephant " 
upon the author of " The Light of Asia," for the 
service rendered in commending their system to the 
favorable opinion of Christendom. The regalia of 
the dignity will not, however, be counted a very high 
honor, when that time comes — as come it will — when 
the temples in all Buddhist lands are as completely 
deserted of their worshipers as are the thirteen which 



384 From Boston to Bareilly. 

stand so lonely beneath the Methodist mission at 
Dwarahat ! " That day shall dawn," as sure as the 
promises of God, because, in blessed reality, 

" The Light of the world is Jesus ! " 

And of him every teacher of men will have to say, as 
he bows the knee, " He must increase, but I must 
decrease ; " because, " He that cometh from heaven 
is above all." 

The following Sabbath was spent at Almora, 
the place, thirty miles from l!^ynee Tal, to which we 
had to fly on that weary Sabbath in 1857 when we 
were so suddenly ordered off, under the apprehension 
that Khan Bahadur's troops w^ere to storm our posi- 
tion that day or the next. It w^as a great pleasure, 
once more, to meet General Sir Henry Kamsay, Com- 
missioner of Kumaon, that noble friend of our mis- 
sion, whose liberality to our work stands almost 
equal to that of General Gowan. Their munificence 
must ever hold an honored place in the history of our 
missions in India, and will, no doubt, receive its 
reward from our divine Master " in that day." 

One of the sights of Almora is the Leper Asy- 
lum, founded by the London Missionary Society, 
and sustained by the government. Leprosy in India, 
unlike that of Syria, is a dry leprosy, and not usually 
considered contagious. But it mutilates as surely as 
the other. The ears, lips, nose, toes, and fingers rot 
off, and leave the poor victim hideously deformed 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 385 

and wretched. Cliristian sympathy has collected to- 
gether from all parts of the district these poor creat- 
ures, and has surrounded them with such comforts 
as their condition requires, instead of having them 
occupy the highways and expose their miseries in 
order to obtain a living. A large piece of ground 
was given and inclosed, a garden planted, suitable 
homes provided with proper supervision and medical 
help, a place of worship was added ; sufficent funds 
are voted for support, so that every want is provided 
for. On the Sabbath afternoon I went over and 
preached for them, the Rev. Mr. Budden kindly 
translating for me. Of the one hundred and twenty 
on the premises, more than sixty are regular attend- 
ants at worship, and twenty-five of these are commu- 
nicants ; twenty of the members have been taught to 
read. Only one of them remembered me as having 
been there before. One of them was a blind man, 
whose face was so pleasant that it was a study. 
When the hour of service arrived they came in. 
The floor was covered with mats, and they seated 
themselves on them, in regular rows, all doing their 
best to conceal their deformity, especially of the nose 
and lips, by shading with the hand. The readers 
and church members sat in the front rows. It was 
very affecting to see the readers, as they followed the 
minister in the Scripture lessons, try to turn the 
page with the heel of the hand, the fingers being 

gone. There was no singing, the loss of the lips for- 
25 



386 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

bidding it. I spoke from Luke iv, on the sympathy 
of the Lord Jesus for people of their class, and his will- 
ingness and ability to cleanse them from a more deadly 
leprosy than any that can afflict the body. They gave 
excellent attention to what I said, and especially when 
I spoke of the glorious change which would be theirs, 
if they loved and served God, when, on the resurrec- 
tion morn, he would " change their vile bodies and 
make them like unto his own glorious body." As I 
said this it brought to my mind an incident in the 
life of Kobert Hall, the great Baptist minister of 
England, whose mental aberrations occasionally in- 
volved him in awkward situations. It is related of 
him that, in an evening party where he was present, he 
fixed his gaze so earnestly on a lady sitting opposite 
to him as to distress her. She was remarkable, not for 
beauty, but for the want of it. Unable to endure his 
gaze any longer, she expostulated and asked him what 
he meant by it ; when he replied, with a charming 
candor : that he " was trying to study out what an 
amazing change for the better the morning of the 
resurrection would make in her personal appearance !" 
So, at least, I thought of my audience at Almora. 
What change, what compensation, will " that day" be 
to those of them, who die, as Mr. Budden assured me 
a few of them have already died, trusting in Christ ! 
I thought it might be a ray of comfort to them to 
hear the case of Laura Bridgman, of South Boston, 
and show them how she, with all her natural disad- 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 387 

vantages, became a true Christian and a cultured 
ladj. I told tliem of her, that she never saw, never 
heard, never spoke — sight, hearing, and speech hav- 
ing been denied her — and yet she became a happy 
Christian. They looked up with such interest, and 
when I put the question whether, in view of the fact 
that they had all their senses, and could hear, see, 
and speak, they had not some advantages over her 
for which they could be grateful, they turned to each 
other, and the poor, dull faces lit up into something 
of a smile as they nodded to one another and assented 
to the idea that they had something left to be grate- 
ful for. I may have strained the point in trying to 
comfort them, but their countenances showed I suc- 
ceeded in my effort. Even here the value of our Or- 
phanages comes again into view. The devoted couple 
who have charge of tbis institution were educated 
by us at Bareilly and Shahjahanpore. She was one of 
the original orphan girls, and was trained by Dr. 
Humphrey as a medical woman. He was educated 
as a teacher, and became a local preacher. They ac- 
cepted the position here, and so these one hundred 
and twenty lepers have the instruction and medical 
and religions care which they require resident with 
them. The government medical commission, which 
comes round once in ^ve years on a tour of inspec- 
tion, wrote in their report regarding this institution 
the significant words, " Content and even pleasant." 
In returning to Nynee Tal, on our way to the Plains 



388 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

again, we passed by the point where, on that Sunday 
night of our flight (referred to on page 384), my horse 
hung for a few moments, in the darkness, on the 
verge of that awful precipice, where only the Divine 
hand saved us both from being dashed to pieces. In 
this journey one climbs up out of narrow valleys and 
to the summits of high mountains (running east and 
v/est) on large spaces of which the sun never shone 
since the creation. He cannot get round them to 
touch them with his rays. You ride out of the warm 
air into these stretches of damp, chilly atmosphere — 
miles long sometimes — where you must wrap up or 
run the risk of taking serious colds. The trees, which 
grow in such gloomy localities, are loaded with a hair- 
like moss, hanging down from one to three feet in 
length, as if nature there was draped in mourning. 
You come out again into " the blessed sunlight," more 
than ever grateful for its cheer and life-imparting 
power. 

In leaving Nynee Tal for Moradabad we went 
down on the west side, and visited our other Chris- 
tian village at the foot of the hills. The place is 
named Isanagar (the home of Jesus), and has a 
Christian population of nearly one hundred souls. 
Kev. Thomas Gowan — the third orphan boy whom I 
received — has charge of this circuit, with five appoint- 
ments and several schools, and is grandly aided by his 
good wife, Florence (one of the orphan girls). Thomas 
met us at the foot of the hills, and was our guide into 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 389 

the Bliabur. "When we came in sight of the place, and 
the villagers saw their pastor and ourselves coming, 
thej shouted the news to each other across the fields ; 
and it was a sight to see them unjoke their bullocks 
and leave the plows in the furrows and hurry across to 
intercept us on the road to welcome us. The animals 
were soon put up, and, knowing I had but a few 
hours to stay with them, they came just as they were 
to the tent (the gift of General Ramsay), which they 
use as a chapel, and I preached to them from the text, 
"Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye be- 
lieved ? " Some one exhorted after me, and, before 
we were aware, we had glided into a pleasant love- 
feast and had a good time. Then they served us with 
a hearty dinner of rice and curry, and in half an hour 
after I was preaching to them again. About forty of 
the heathen around had crowded in and listened with 
deepest attention to all that was said. JSTow this en- 
tire enterprise is self-sustaining, and never cost our 
Missionary Society a dollar. The people are very 
poor, but they are slowly rising, and are also doing 
what they can for the support of their pastor, paying 
in kind, like the other Christian village near Shahja- 
hanpore. If some good man or woman would build 
them a little chapel, what a benediction it would be ! 
They were so loving and kind, I was greatly delighted 
with them. 

Moradabad, forty miles south, was our next point. 
Here was where I had that struggle to obtain our dear 



390 Fbom Boston to Baeeilly. 

girls. At that time our congregation at this place 
was an illustration of how we were shut up. How 
dark and forbidding the prospect was ! About two 
women and twenty-five men constituted the usual con- 
gregation here. JS^ow the congregation is one of the 
largest in the Conference, and the majority are wom- 
en. Besides the church at the mission premises, 
they have a church in the very center of the city, 
which is admirably arranged and commodious, and 
has a tower and clock upon it. On the Sabbath it is 
filled. The galleries are latticed, so that zenana ladies 
can come in their palanquins, and go up and be en- 
tirely to themselves, looking down through the lattices 
on the audience below without themselves being seen, 
and yet hearing all that is said. This was Brother and 
Sister Parker's idea, and on several occasions they 
have drawn out the ladies to see an illustrated lecture 
on some Scripture theme, or other entertainment — 
quite an event in their poor secluded lives, and which 
will lead to somethins: better and more freedom ere 
long. What hard, devoted work Brother and Sister 
Parker have put into this mission since they came to 
India in 1859, and what a monument their success is 
to them to-day ! Long may their efficient and faith- 
ful services be spared to our work in India ! 

The schools established here by Rev. J. T. and 
Mrs. Goucher, of Baltimore, are already a great power 
for good, and are destined to aid in developing the 
work of God in Eohilcund to an extent that will, no 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 391 

doubt, be a joj to tliem forever. Shiilukli and Jane 
Phiiner (two of the original band of orphan girls 
trained as female physicians) are here earning a com- 
fortable support by their medical practice. We vis- 
ited the Dispensary, and were greatly pleased to find 
two of our girls so honorably and usefully employed. 
The best singing we had yet heard in our mission 
was what we listened to here. They have in the city 
one thousand and seventy-one Sunday-school scholars, 
and raised the banner collection for the Missionary 
Society of all the native Churches, the amount being 
eighty-nine rupees. The list lies before me, and 
seems to include most of the members of the Church, 
and the amount contributed runs from about two 
dollars to three cents each. Brother Gill told us that 
some of his people contributed to the collection a full 
week's salary ; two or three gave two weeks, and one 
gave a month's pay. Well done, Moradabad native 
Church ! A good old man, by the name of Kundan, 
came in twice from the district, walking forty miles 
each time, to see and welcome us. With tears he 
" thanked God that he had lived to see the day when 
Dr. Butler came back to India," and then he turned 
and requested our prayers on behalf of his wife, who 
is still unconverted. He is the old man who is so 
fond of the hymn, 

" I left it all with Jesus." 

By a rising vote the congregation requested me to 
send their salaam (loving regards) to the members 



392 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

of our Church in the Mexican Mission, with their 
hearty wislies for their welfare and Christian fidelity. 
Here, too, I had the privilege of baptizing quite a 
number of babies, the children of our former orphan 
girls ; the grateful mothers being so pleased that I 
should do this for them that it was really a delight 
to gratify them. And here let me say, while refer- 
ring to these India babies, that I feel assured I am 
not at all mistaken when I declare I never saw such 
well conducted babes in any part of the world as 
are thwse in India. The mothers are zealous about 
attending the means of grace, and do not think that 
having a baby excuses them from doing so. JN^ot one 
in twenty of them is able to afford to keep any help 
(cheap though that help is there), so, unless they have 
an older child able to take charge of the little one in 
their absence, if they are to attend worship they must 
take the baby with them. I have seen fifteen tG 
twenty of these babies in an audience, and I was con* 
stantly surprised to witness how good and quiet they 
were. Sometimes a whole service would go over 
without a single cry being heard ; and even when 
one of them would begin to whimper (and it seldom 
rose above that), and the mother could not hush it to 
silence, she would leave with it, but in ten minutes 
return with the pacified little one, and there would be 
no further trouble or disturbance from them. They 
certainly are an example to all the babies of Christen- 
dom that I have ever seen for good behavior in the 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 393 

house of God ! As little ones they are handsome. 
Their warm olive color prevents them shovring any 
paleness, and their little bright, black eyes, shining 
like animated diamonds, give them a very pleasing 
aspect. 

Our next visit was to Budaon, lying south-east from 
Moradabad, and thirty miles from Bareilly. This 
was the first place in India in which I administered 
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. A few days 
after my arrival at Bareilly, in 1857, 1 received a note 
from the English judge of Budaon (the only white 
man in that district of eight hundred thousand peo- 
ple) requesting me to visit Budaon and give a Sab- 
bath service to his family. At that time there was 
no made road from Bareilly to Budaon over which a 
carriage could run ; so the judge arranged to bring 
me through by sending out a couple of elephants, 
which he had stationed at suitable distances, and on 
their backs I went over the thirty miles in about six 
hours. I spent a very interesting Sabbath with this 
pious Episcopalian family, and ministered to them in 
holy things, but had little idea in what peril they 
would find themselves within six weeks of that visit, 
and how wonderfully God was to work out the deliv- 
erance of each of them, though separated from each 
other in the confusion. The facts are given in TTie 
Land of the Yeda. 

Now I am returning, twenty-seven years after, to 
that city and district, to see what God has wrought 



394: Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 

meanwhile. After the Sepoy Rebellion I went through 
the tow^ns of that district, and cannot cease to remem- 
ber the intense solicitude with which I surveyed that 
region of spiritual darkness. I never offered more 
earnest supplication to God for any object than I did, 
as I went prospecting around through these villages 
and towms, that God might have mercy upon the long- 
benighted multitudes, and raise up there Christian 
Cliurches and an indigenous agency of leaders, local 
preachers, Sunday-school workers, etc. I distinctly 
remember going over just such enumeration, and then 
realizing keenly how naked my faith was, not a soul 
of them having yet heard of the Gospel ; but still I 
clung, in an agonizing desire, to the blessed hope that 
He who could " call the things which are not as 
though they were," would, in his infinite compassion 
and mercy, bring about this result. He heard these 
prayers ; how he answered them the facts will show. 
The brethren kept saying to us, in the south-east of 
our mission (in and around Lucknow), as they saw 
our delight with what we witnessed, "O, wait till 
you reach Kohilcund, and you will see the strength 
of Methodism there." In company with the presid- 
ing elder, Brother Thomas, we went to Budaon, to 
attend the Quarterly Conference. I had no adequate 
idea, before going, how developed Christianity had 
become throughout that circuit, and they might well 
anticipate how surprised and delighted I would be 
at the sight of that Quarterly Conference. 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 395 

On entering tlie place where tlie Conference was 
assembled I saw fiftj-seven members — seven of them 
being ladies — awaiting ns. In mj day fifty-seven 
persons were regarded a goodly number as a congre- 
gation ; but here was that number now of official 
brethren and sisters — class-leaders, Sunday-school su- 
perintendents, local preachers, and other officers of 
our Church in that Budaon Circuit. I have not seen 
a more devout and orderly Quarterly Conference any- 
where. The business proceeded in full disciplinary 
style. Every part of the work was well represented, 
the reports, generally prepared and written, were 
clear, zealous, and spiritual — the substance being 
translated to me as they proceeded. To show how 
the Gospel is penetrating this population I quote a 
sentence of one of their reports. The native preacher 
said : " I have twenty-seven villages in my sub-cir- 
cuit, and Christians in every one of them." Here, 
too, the cause has become so strong that our people 
are able to hold their temporal position notwith- 
standing they have become the followers of Christ. 
Hitherto they generally had to surrender position, re- 
lations, and property when they became Christians ; 
and many who desired to follow their example were 
deterred from doing so by the fearful sacrifices which 
these had to endure. But a better day is dawning, 
and a more rapid extension of the work will be the 
certain result, as well as a higher ability to support 
the cause which will be espoused. 



396 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

The seven female members of the Quarterly Con- 
ference — all educated women, and in that respect 
occupying a higher intellectual position than the 
average of the members of that Conference — were, 
with some exceptions, members of the normal class 
of the Orphanage. The reports of their quarter's 
work were rendered with a clearness and style that 
was a credit to their training. I looked at them 
with surprise and gratitude to God. There was 
more in that Quarterly Conference than I had, at the 
first sight of it, supposed ; and it was manifest that 
our Methodistic system suited them exactly. They 
evidently appreciated it, and could work it well. 
Surely the future was here provided for. Our cause, 
as a precious system of evangelism, could be safely 
intrusted to hands like these. It was the ripest prod- 
uct of our disciplinary methods which I had yet seen 
in India, and impressed me intensely, and intimated 
such a future tHat my whole heart went out to them 
in loving confidence. Here my feelings nearly over- 
came me, and I found I was sobbing aloud before I 
could get control of myself. What a full heart of 
gratitude to God was mine that hour, and what a 
blessed hope of the glorious future which seemed so 
sure to come through the faithful services of these 
devoted brethren and sisters and their successors ! 

It was easy for me now to fully appreciate the ap- 
peal of Dr. Waugh when, after pointing out to me 
the conviction of our missionaries that our Grospel 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 397 

had so penetrated the minds of the people of this 
district, by means of our itinerant preaching through 
their villages and in the bazaars, and by our schools 
and the circulation of the Holy Scriptures and our 
Christian books and tracts, it is held as a convic- 
tion by all here that they are on the eve of a mighty 
movement, in which immense masses of these people 
may one day abandon idolatry forever, and slide 
down, like an avalanche, toward Christianity, and en- 
treat that they be instructed and saved. They have 
lost faith in a system which they have trusted so 
long, but from which they have derived no saving 
benefit. They plainly see their Christian neigh- 
bors are better and more enlightened than them- 
selves ; and the only thing now needed is to get 
before their minds that the reason of this difference 
is made by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which these 
people have received by faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. How suddenly, and savingly too, this 
change may come to multitudes of them was being 
illustrated (March, 1885), as these sheets were pass- 
ing through the press, at the great mela at Adjudia ; 
where in three days two hundred and forty-eight 
men and women (one half of them Brahmans) were 
led to Christ under the preaching and testimony of 
two of onr native ministers ! This is, probably, 
the most wonderful religious fact that has taken 
place in India, and shows the divine power there is 
in the argument from experiencej when presented in 



398 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

faith and with a loving heart to these people by men 
who are themselves converted and full of the Holy 
Spirit. 

The appeal made by Dr. "Waugh was based upon 
considerations of this character. But he startled me 
when he asked, what was our mission to do when 
this breaking-down time came, and these multitudes, 
whom they had so long been instructing, would yield 
and turn to them for help and instruction in seeking 
salvation ? I did not comprehend at first what diffi- 
culty stood in the way of the mission doing all that 
was necessary to help them and utilize such a glorious 
opportunity. But the doctor asked me to look at the 
condition of their work and say, where was the man 
whom they could spare from existing labors to go to 
the help of those people were they to appeal to them 
to-morrow? Every missionary and native preacher 
and leader they have is already under all the tension 
they can bear to fulfill the duties laid on them by the 
Annual Conference. For new work, no matter how 
energetic or important, they have neither the men 
nor the means. They are crowded already by their 
success ! They have appealed again and again for 
more financial aid in order to educate the young men 
whom God has given them, and get them ready for 
the enlargement of their work. But the Missionary 
Society is unable to respond, and so half of this pre- 
cious material is not utilized, and they are looking 
forward with anxious hearts to a demand upon them 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 399 

which thej know they are not able to meet with- 
out abandoning existing work, which is not to be 
thought of. 

Will the Methodist Episcopal Church allow this 
serious condition of things to continue? Are not 
the Temainder of these twenty million of souls, " for 
whom Christ died," as valuable as are the few thou- 
sands whom we have already won from among them ? 
Will not our people provide for the rising wants and 
wide extension of their mission in India, and espe- 
cially while God is working so graciously and bidding 
them' " Go forward " % Surely they will do so, for 
the present demand is the result of their own praying 
and liberality. They implored God to remove every 
obstruction out of the path of his Gospel in that 
land, and open a way for the salvation of those mill- 
ions, so that his Son might have magnificent India 
" for his inheritance ; " and up to the measure of 
their liberality, and far beyond it, has He blessed 
their work for him. Now he makes further appeal 
for more means to accomplish "greater things than 
these." Will the Church be worthy of her Lord and 
his leading? Will she bring "the tithes into the 
store-house . . . and prove" him therewith "to open the 
windows of heaven, and pour " them " out a blessing 
that there shall not be room enough to receive it ? " 
If so, the scale of average liberality must soon become 
very different from what it is to-day. An average 
of forty cents each for the redemption of the world 



400 Feom Boston to Bareillt. 

is a poor evidence of a serious purpose on the part 
of a Church to bring the world to God ! Were the 
average contribution from our people four or five 
dollars each, then, indeed, we might begin to look 
np, for our redemption would be drawing nigh, and 
the millennium would be dawning upon the world ! 
The "million of dollars," now anticipated with so 
much interest, is liberal, but it is only so in com- 
parison with the past niggardly giving. God is very 
patient with us in condescending to accept hitherto 
such poor offerings at our hands. But does he not 
expect '•' the tithes " to be brought in, and can he 
be satisfied with less, if less will not suffice to save 
the world ? He certainly does, and requires in ad- 
dition " the firstlings of our flock and the fat there- 
of " to be laid upon his altar in consecration to 
this, the supreme duty and service of his Church. 
He wants, in addition to our money, our cultured 
and precious sons and daughters, to be given up for 
his glorious service. He "gave his own Son" to 
the same work, and he expects our children to be 
consecrated to it. O for a baptism of liberality 
upon the people of God, that they may in deed 
and in truth render to the Lord what they so often 
profess to do when they sing : 

" 'Here, at that cross where flows the blood 
That bought my guilty soul for God, 
Thee, my new Master, now I call, 
And consecrate to thee my alV " 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 401 

After this solemn engagement, made in our better 
moments, how serious if we go back on that conse- 
cration, and show, by our want of liberality, that we 
did not mean what we said to God ! 

One of the female members of that Quarterly 
Conference had a remarkable history. She was the 
little daughter of people well to do, and was stolen 
one evening by thieves for the sake of the ornaments 
that she had on her person. J^ext morning she was 
found, utterly destitute, by a native policeman, and by 
him was taken to the court of the English magistrate, 
who, unable to find her friends, sent the poor little 
waif to the missionary. Brother Hoskins, who for- 
warded her to Bareilly, where she was received into 
the Orphanage. In a few years she developed into a 
young woman of such culture that she was sent to 
Budaon to be employed as a Bible woman. One day, 
in visiting the houses of that city to read and explain 
the Scriptures to the women, she entered one where 
an old lady sat in the corner of a room. Something 
about the face and voice of the young visitor startled 
the old woman. She gazed and listened till she could 
endure no more, and, rushing across the apartment, 
laid her hands on the girl, and eagerly -asked her : 
" Are 3^ou not the daughter of Luchman, the gold- 
smith?" It was the grandmother. Identification 
followed, and they rejoiced over the recovery of the 
lost one whom they had mourned as dead. Even her 

Christianity was found no serious bar to their revived 
26 



4:02 From Boston to Bareilly. 

love. Tliey could not but admire the nice, educated 
girl that stood before them, whom Christianity had 
saved, and for whom it had done so much ; so she was 
taken to their heart again, Christianity and all. Eliz- 
abeth (her baptismal name) soon after was married 
to the son of Samuel, one of our first preachers, and 
whose triumphant death at Shahjahanpore has been 
often referred to. Elizabeth's husband is also a 
preacher, and at present a candidate for admission 
into the local ministry. 

In connection with this station there occurred, in 
its early history, a fact that was unique of its kind, 
and the results of which I was interested enough to 
inquire into on this occasion. A man by the name of 
Presgrave, about the close of the year 1859, came un- 
der the influence of the Gospel, and applied for bap- 
tism and admission into the Church on probation. 
On inquiry we found that he had two wives, and we 
told him it was out of our power to receive him in 
that condition. He pleaded that the entire family 
were ready and willing to come with him in-to Chris- 
tianity, and he wanted them to be received along with 
himself without disturbing their relations. He seemed 
so honest and earnest that we felt much for him, but 
explained to him that, under the Christian law of 
marriage, we could not baptize and receive either 
himself or them in their present relations. He be- 
came greatly distressed, but, after much conversation 
upon the matter, declared his willingness to give up 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 403 

his polygamy, and live with one wife only, and was 
even willing to be married to that one by Christian 
rites. This brought up the question as to which of the 
two he should marry, and he appealed to us to decide 
this matter for him. I shrank from such a respon- 
sibiUty, and told him he must decide this question for 
himself. They were both equally his wives by the 
law of his former religion, and they had married him 
in good faith. The case was even more difficult than 
this. His first wife, to whom he was much attached, 
had brought him no children, and she pined under 
this privation, chiefly on his account. She knew 
that Menu, in his Institutes of Hindu Law^ had or- 
dained that, under such a condition of things, a second 
marriage was a sort of duty, so that the husband 
might have a son to officiate at his shraad (the funeral 
ceremonies), in order to insure for the father a happy 
transmigration. This idea prevails all over India, 
and is, after all, the leading reason for a second 
marriage. 

The first and childless wife herself suggested this 
course to her husband, and declared that she would 
regard the children born of the second marriage as 
her own, and love them as such. He accordingly took 
another wife, and five children were the fruit of the 
second marriage. It was after the eldest daughter 
of that marriage had grown up and was herself a wife 
that this contact with Christianity occurred. In re- 
sponse to his earnest request that we should decide for 



404: Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

him, we urged him to retm^n home and settle this se- 
rious question after full consideration with all con- 
cerned. He went, and, I presume, did his best, but 
failed to reach a conclusion in which thej could all 
agree. Willing to do right, but unable to see the 
way to accomplish it, in view of the conflicting hearts 
and interests involved, the distracted husband and fa- 
ther loaded the whole family on his bullock-cart and 
came to Bareilly. I was called in from my work one 
day to find the enti^ circle in the sitting-room. The 
father opened the subject by stating that they had 
tried to settle the matter among themselves, but had 
not been able to do so, and so he had brought them 
all in to have us aid them to a conclusion. The cru- 
cial question was, which of the wives should be dis- 
carded ? I anxiously looked up to the Lord for wis- 
dom in the emergency, and soon found myself ap- 
pealed to as judge in the matter by both sides. It was 
pathetic to the last degree to hear them, and especially 
the two poor wives, pleading their own claims. The 
first and oldest urged that she had been a true and 
faithful wife to her husband all her married life, and, 
though God had denied her the children she longed to 
have, especially for his sake, yet her fidelity and af- 
fection ought to plead for her in this hour, so that she 
might not become the discarded one. Then the other 
wife urged her claims, not only love and duty faith- 
fully performed, but also the five children that she 
had brought to him, and pleaded with tears that she 



Fbom Boston to Bakeilly. 405 

ought not to be the one rejected. 'No word of bitter- 
ness or recrimination was uttered by either party. 
All spoke under the sense of the heavy sacrifice which 
Christianity was then demanding of them, and also 
with full respect for the feelings and convictions of 
the husband and father. The children sat looking on 
with an anxious and foreboding asjDCct that was pain- 
ful to contemplate. All the time my heart was going 
up in prayer for the merciful intervention of Him 
whose holy and inflexible law was requiring this sac- 
rifice from those who would be his followers, so that 
we might be guided wisely, and without any compro- 
mise which he would reject, from out of the midst of 
these painful and intricate circumstances into which 
their false religion had led them. 

I felt a strong hope that, in view of the hus- 
band's manifest anxiety to do what was right before 
God, the merciful One above would not leave us in 
this terrible perplexity, but, in some way or other, 
would cause " light to rise upon this obscurity." But 
I could not imagine how it was to be done. It is 
often said that "man's extremity is God's oppor- 
tunity." It certainly was so here ; for, when the 
pleadings were ceasing, and the solemn silence was 
creeping over us, and each heart seemed hushed to 
listen for the decision which must come now from 
some quarter to solve the difficulty and save the 
whole effort from a confusion and collapse that would 
surely sacrifice the future peace and love of this anx- 



406 Feom Boston to Baeeillt. 

ious family, and effectually impede their conversion 
to Christianity, then help seemed to come from 
heaven. The eldest daughter of the second wife, 
herself married, and with her babe on her bosom, 
stirred by an impulse that seemed to impel her to 
most decided action, rose to her feet and crossed the 
room to the sad and weeping first wife, and tenderly 
addressing her, said, " Mother, I have now a home of 
my own, and if you will only consent to be the dis- 
carded one, so that my father may be able to carry 
out his religious convictions, I will take you to my 
heart and home, and I will be a loving daughter to 
you all the days of your life!" Love solved the 
whole difficulty. The old woman threw her arms 
round the neck of the dear girl and crossed the room 
with her to sit by her side, and the matter was settled 
without another word being spoken. We all sat in 
tears to see this wonderful, merciful, and even beau- 
tiful solution of one of the most unique and painful 
difficulties in which a number of human hearts could 
be entangled ! The feelings of all parties were saved 
and honored, God's law was complied with, and the 
whole family received into Christianity and its holy 
relations. I made inquiry during my late visit as to 
the results, and was particularly pleased to find at the 
Eohilcund camp-meeting the son of the family (one of 
those sad and anxious children who had there to pass 
through this terrible ordeal) was in attendance as a 
candidate for admission to the office of local preacher. 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 407 

From Budaon we went on to attend the camp-meet- 
ing at Cliandausi. This is oiir largest camp-meeting 
in India. As we stood at the station with our com- 
pany, waiting for the arrival from Bareilly, it was 
delightful when the train approached to hear the en- 
thusiastic singing of the crowd on board— our orphan 
girls helping so grandly. How it reminded me of 
such scenes at home. But it was far more significant 
here ! It contrasted so grandly with the somber mood 
and joyless aspect generally exhibited by the people 
around, who have nothing in their religion to make 
them happy. They would stop and listen with sur- 
prise to these joyful Christians, then pass on, wonder- 
ing what all this meant. But they will learn some 
day, and may it be soon ! 

The camp was pitched in a grove owned by a 
friendly Hindu. Eight hundred native Methodists 
were on the ground. Instead of tents, which our 
poor people could not afford, the requisite shelter was 
provided by booths, made of boughs of trees and 
grass, for which about half a rupee (twenty cents) rent 
was charged. Each sheltered a family, and was suffi- 
cient for shade, though they would not turn rain off 
if it occurred at that time of the year (early Decem- 
ber), which it does not. The scene was very interest- 
ing, and was a good copy of the " Feast of taber- 
nacles " in other days. 

The first two days were given to District Confer- 
ence work, with morning and evening public services. 



408 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

that at the close of the Conferences glided into the 
camp-meeting proper, which closed on Sunday night 
following. In this case there were three District 
Conferences held on the ground, the Bohilcund Con- 
ference, the Amroha Conference, and the Conference 
of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society ; the 
presidents of each being Eev. D. W. Thomas, Rev. 
Zahur-ul-Huqq, and Miss Fanny Sparkes. The first and 
last were held in large tents, but Brother Huqq's Con- 
ference (it being the cool season of the year, when the 
natives feel the cold more than we do) preferred to 
hold theirs in the open air, where they could sit in 
the sun. It was unique to see them seated on the 
ground, native fashion, so content, with only the canopy 
of heaven over them, going thus orderly through all 
the forms and duties of a Methodist District Con- 
ference. 

Every person in the service of either Societj^, no 
matter how humble the sphere of duty, is required 
to attend their Conference, to represent their work, 
to pass examination in character, appear before the 
committees on the prescribed studies of each year, as 
well as to receive the religious help and benefit of the 
camp-meeting which follows the Conferences. The 
supervision of our work in India is complete to the 
fullest degree. The visitations of the presiding el- 
ders are regular and effective, and thus there is not a 
dollar expended on our work there but they know 
where it is and what it is doing for the Church. I 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 409 

went round from one Conference to another, filled 
with admiration of the thorough manner in which the 
Discipline is administered in the North India Confer- 
ence. Yes, indeed, these men " mean business," and 
that business is "well done." From the ordained el- 
der of the legal (Annual) Conference, stationed within 
the limits of these District Conferences, down to the 
humble colporteurs, here they were assembled for 
the transaction and oversight of the Lord's work com- 
mitted to their charge. I took the numbers of the 
membership of each Conference from its secretary 
and found that there were : 

In the Rohilcund Conference 125 members. 

In the Amroha Conference 44 " 

In the Ladies' Conference 95 " 

A total working force of 264 persons. 

And this is over and above the male and female Dis- 
trict Conferences of Kumaon and Oude. In fact, there 
are seven District Conferences within the bounds of 
the ]Rorth India Conference, four of the parent Board 
and three of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Soci- 
ety. They meet at the same time and place, and co- 
operate together most kindly and harmoniously, act- 
ing freely and independently for what concerns their 
own specific work, and yet in unity and mutual assist- 
ance for all that concerns the common interests of the 
Church within their bounds. 

The missionary ladies have a regular Manual, con- 



410 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

taining their Constitution, Bnles of Order, Bj-laws, 
and Specified Courses of Study for four years, obliga- 
tory upon their lady missionaries and assistants, their 
Bible women, school teachers, and zenana visitors. 
Their rules are faithfully applied at these Conferences, 
and one of them is strict enough to lay down the law, 
that any lady missionary unable or unwilling to ac- 
quire the language and pass the examinations in the 
vernacular course of study shall be reported to the 
executive committee at home, so that she may be re- 
called. The result is a general efficiency, that makes 
them worthy to stand by the side of the missionaries 
of the parent Board. There is thus a proper founda- 
tion for a real respect and confidence, which is very 
pleasant ; and this, joined with the loyalty of the 
lady missionaries to the Church and its constituted 
authorities in India, enables them to toil together in 
the same stations without friction, and with sincere 
appreciation and mutual help. The Annual Confer- 
ence draws all together under its kind and efficient 
supervision. 

I was delayed somewhat in reaching the camp- 
ground, and found on arrival that the general service, 
where all three Conferences had met together to im- 
plore the blessing of the Lord upon their work, had 
commenced. The hymn was over and they had gone 
to prayer. Hurrying across to the big tent, I heard 
the voice that was leading the devotions within. I 
did not need to ask those with me whose voice that 



Feom Boston to Baeetlly. 411 

was ! It was eighteen years since I heard it last, but 
how quickly I knew it, and how my heart throbbed 
to hear it ! It was Brother Joel! Quietly entering 
behind the pulpit, I remained unobserved by any one 
till he had ended and they rose up again. I suppose, 
according to the proprieties, I ought to have waited 
till the service had concluded before hailing and sa- 
luting my dear old helper. But I could not wait. 
Before the presiding elder could give out the next 
hymn I had rushed across the tent to where Joel 
was sitting, and, laying my hands on his shoulders, I 
looked into those sightless eyes and kissed his fore- 
head, exclaiming, "Dear Joel!" I felt his whole 
frame thrill with joy. He was on his feet in a mo- 
ment, and we were clasped in each other's arms, our 
hearts beating responsively each to the other. The 
elder had to wait; nobody could sing; every one 
was moved, and the native preachers were in tears 
around us. Perhaps they will never forget it. There 
is nothing like love. It wins and conquers hearts 
anywhere on earth. That scene did those native 
brethren much good. It satisfied them that fidelity 
to the Church and to God was the true way to be ap- 
preciated and loved. I sat during the sermon with 
my arm round this " true yoke-fellow," and my mind 
was busy with the past, w^hen he stood so faithfully 
by my side amid the toil and trials of our work when 
we were so few and feeble. The only shade over this 
joyful meeting was his inability to see me. Ho folt 



412 Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

if he could only look into my face, even for one min- 
ute, he would be satisfied. Poor fellow ! how I sym- 
pathized with his yearning heart in the desire for 
what could not be now, but will surely be hereafter. 

When the service was over the rest of the brethren 
and sisters crowded round and we had a glad time 
together. They looked at us with astonishment and 
delight, as they realized how far we had come to see 
them all once more. Of course our pleasure was 
greatly heightened by meeting Joel's daughters. The 
eldest, who is married, is almost as beautiful as her 
dear mother, the gentle Emma, whom my good 
wife regarded as one of the loveliest women she had 
seen in India. And now, here were the little babies 
of twenty years ago, grown up into such sweet 
maidenhood. The eldest is well married to one who 
is worthy of her, and whose means enable her to be 
generous to the Lord's work. She does a good 
deal of service for tlie Ladies' Society in zenana 
visitation, as a voluntary agent and without accepting 
any earthly recompense. She must be very efficient, 
being so well educated and so lady-like and Christian 
in her spirit. 

The business of all these District Conferences is, 
of course, carried on in the Ilindustanee language. 
The Hindus are a courteous race, and this was ex- 
hibited in their Conference discussions and the respect 
they showed for the rules which governed their as- 
semblies. It was pleasing to hear so frequently the 



Feom Boston to Baeeillt, 413 

words, as tlaey addressed the chair, " Mir mugles 
sahib ! " (Mr. president.) The order kept was ex- 
cellent and their conduct gentlemanly toward each 
other. 

Twelve new local preachers were accepted from 
the ranks of the exhorters; but, after a very strict 
scrutiny in each case, one or two, who had come up 
for admission, were rbjected on account of not hav- 
ing passed good examinations, and were sent back to 
their books for one year more. Another was rejected 
for having whipped his wife. The poor fellow, with 
apparent sincerity, pleaded, in extenuation, that it 
was the custom of his country, and that he supposed 
wives " sometimes needed it to keep them good ! " 
When confronted with our Christian usages not to 
whip our wives, he said that our women were " of a 
different race, and perhaps did not need it ! " But 
it was all in vain, he was rejected. The American 
members of the Conference did not require to take 
part in the discussion; it was left entirely in the 
hands of the native brethren, who are very decided 
not to tolerate this " Hindu custom " in their Church 
members, much less their official brethren. Some- 
times women, who are not aware of our " Christian 
customs," are amazed when they learn that we never 
whip our wives. Dr. Scott told me of a case that 
occurred under his own eyes some years ago. He 
had reason to suppose that one of his theological 
students occasionally resorted to this method of 



414: Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

" keeping liis wife good ; " so he quietly awaited a 
chance to cure the evil. One day he heard some 
commotion on the other side of the wall of the in- 
closure which sounded suspicious, and, hastening 
round, came upon the scene as the husband was lay- 
ing the switch on the wife's back, and she crying 
bitterly. Hastily snatching a broom, which stood 
convenient, he made a dash at the man to stop him, 
when, lo ! the wife rushed to her husband's rescue, 
and in his defense insisted that, being his wife, he 
had a right to whip her if he chose to do so, and that 
she ought to have taken it more patiently! But 
these things are ending, and a native Conference re- 
fuses to excuse it, and will discipline any man that will 
raise his hand to a woman. The better day has come, 
and the law of Christ has begun to abrogate the In- 
stitutes of Menu, and vindicate long-suffering women 
from the treatment which heathenism has thus far in- 
flicted upon them. They will ere long learn, 

" What a friend we have in Jesus I " 

It was satisfactory to see how narrow the door was 
into our ministry and how carefully these native 
brethren were guarding it. 

In my address to these native preachers I urged 
upon them the highest motives of the ministry which 
they had received, and also the duty of developing 
the liberality of their people, so as to lighten the 
load on the funds of our society, and hasten the hour 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 415 

when our means should be set free to evangelize 
those whom we had not yet reached. They do recog- 
nize this duty, and, I believe, are doing about all that 
can be fairly expected of them in this comparatively 
early stage of our work, and also in view of the very 
humble ability of most of our people, who, in becom- 
ing Christians, have lost their all, and have had to 
emerge from a poverty that the Church at home 
cannot imagine. Let them have five or ten years 
more time to work up, and we can then fairly judge 
of their disposition to help themselves. But even 
now, the statistics which are to follow in these pages 
will show that our people are doing all that they are 
able for self-support ; perhaps as well as the average 
of our members at home, if the respective ability of 
the parties is fairly estimated. But the statistics will 
enable my readers to judge for themselves upon this 
question. 

These camp-meetings are of great use. To our 
own people it is no ordinary inspiration to have them 
come together yearly from localities where they are 
few and generally persecuted, and often realizing 
how heavy is the cross which they carry in having 
forsaken heathenism and embraced our religion. 
Then to find themselves united for a week with a 
body of fellow-disciples six or eight hundred strong, 
and enter on the enjoyment of this luxury of the 
means of grace, day after day, putting strength and 
courage into their hearts all the time; they return 



416 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

to tlieir homes better prepared than ever for the 
duties and trials of their Christian life, and cheered 
by the reflection that they belong to a body of con- 
siderable importance, whose members are growing all 
the time in numbers, intelligence, and power for 
good. Here, also, the heathen have a grand chance 
to see and understand Christianity. Hundreds of 
them, who are too timid to enter a place of wor- 
ship, will come to the Christian mela, as they call 
it, and listen to the singing and preaching with much 
interest. They, too, see that this Christianity is 
growing into a power, and they are led to respect it, 
and become more conciliatory toward those of its 
members who reside near them. The steady growth 
of this work of God is indicated in a remark made 
by Dr. Scott, in the Bohilcund Conference tent. He 
said : " Some years ago I built this tent to hold our 
camp-meeting ; now you see it wont contain even the 
members of the District Conference." They have 
most gracious reasons for obeying the Divine com- 
mand, " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them 
stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations." A 
remark made by one of the native brethren in the ac- 
count of his work, shows, also, the growth of toleration 
toward our religion which the past twenty-five years 
have developed. The JSTawab of Bampore (a native 
State in the center of Bohilcund) is a Mohammedan 
sovereign. We have long desired to get access to 
his territory, and have at last succeeded. But his 



Feom Boston to Bakeillt. 417 

bigoted officials brought the fact to his notice lately, 
mentioning the name of a family who had become 
Christians in one of his towns, and where we h?ve 
begun to hold service. Of course the expectation 
was that he would give them leave to drive them 
out. But no; to their amazement, his highness re- 
plied, '' Why, I tolerate Hindus in my territory, and 
why should I not tolerate Christians, also ? Let them 
alone." I know this nawab personally. It was his 
worthy father wlio (as I have related in the Land of 
the Veda), when we were so closely beset at Nynee 
Tal, gave us that " aid and comfort " then so valuable 
to us. I hope my readers will pray for the worthy 
and tolerant son who now occupies the throne of 
Rampore. 

Andrias, a member of this Conference, in his zeal 
and desire to relieve the missionary treasury of his 
support, gave up his humble salary, of six dollars per 
month, on this occasion, asking merely that a small 
portion of it be paid to sustain his wife and family, 
and he would throw himself entirely upon his Chu- 
mar people for support. They had even requested 
him to do so. He had been their gruru (religious 
guide and teacher) in their heathen state, and they 
were willing to sustain him now as their Christian 
guTio. The good old man is working his circuit on 
tliis plan, and so far is doing well. 

I ought to mention that the head of that family in 

Bampore, mentioned above, who has become a Chris- 
27 



418 From Boston to Bareilly. 

tian, shows his faith by his works, and on this ques- 
tion of support for the Christian cause (which all our 
preachers instruct their people to observe to the ex- 
tent of their ability) he thus states his own sense of 
duty: "In my heathen condition I dedicated the 
product of five begas of land (nearly an acre) to the 
Brahmins ; but now I plow and sow it for Jesus, and 
give the product to his cause." 

I had once more the great pleasure of hearing dear 
Joel preach one of his own eloquent, spiritual sermons 
from the text : " Father, I will that they also, whom 
thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that 
they may beliold my glory." It was affecting to look 
upon his expressive face, with those sightless eyes, as 
he dwelt on the fact that they shall " behold " that 
"glory" — not one of them being destitute of the 
power to see it. 

The sublime and the ridiculous sometimes come 
very close and awkwardly together. One such inci- 
dent may be worth relating here, not for the smile 
which it will create, but for the better purpose it will 
answer to illustrate, in a simple way, how our religion 
cultures its adherents and confers on them a spiritual 
discernment which marks the difference between them 
and people of the world. Our camp was lighted 
at night by little " butties," small earthen cups with 
oil and cotton wicks, fastened upon the trees. To 
prepare these and take care of them is one man's 
work. He is called a chirag wallah. This wallah 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 419 

was only a nominal Christian, and at the time was 
evidently thinking more of his '' butties " than of 
that which they feebly typified, when the presiding 
elder was earnestly exhorting the audience to take 
due care to have " their lights trimmed and burning," 
so that they should shine full and clear before men, 
and not go out and leave them in darkness. At this 
point the poor wallah, who imagined the exhortation 
was clearly aimed at him and his failure of duty, un- 
able to endure it longer, rose to his feet and sud- 
denly broke in on the elder's address, and most 
energetically declared: "Why, sahib, it is not my 
fault that they burn badly ; I prepare them carefully 
and watch them as well as I can, but the thieving 
crows come round and pull out the wicks and get at 
the oil in the butties — what more can I do ? " At 
home this ridiculous blunder would have broken up 
the solemnity of any camp-meeting for a good while. 
But here, though there was a momentary merriment 
at the stupidity of the wallah, it was but momentary, 
and the feeling awakened was commiseration for the 
poor fellow's want of " spiritual discernment " to un- 
derstand the word of God and the elder's use of it. 
In three minutes all was serene again, and the elder's 
exhortation lost none of its effect by the interruption. 
The numbers forward for prayers, and of those who 
professed to have been saved, were I think in advance 
of the Lucknow meeting, and the power of God 
seemed to me to be more manifest. The love-feast 



420 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

was delightful, from two to five persons would be on 
the floor at a time waiting for a chance to speak. A 
singular fact occurred during this service. A Mo- 
hammedan gentleman, who had come into the assem- 
bly out of mere curiosity, was so affected by the testi- 
monies which he heard that he rose and asked the 
privilege of saying a word. Permission was given, 
and he then remarked, that he " felt the spirit of the 
place, and he wished to confess that he had been 
much helped in his religious feelings." This was the 
way he put it. It seemed a true illustration of what 
St. Paul meant, in 1 Cor. xiv, 25, where he speaks of 
the stranger in a Christian assembly confessing to the 
power of God being present to save. The sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper was a beautiful and solemn 
service — about four hundred and fifty communed — 
nearly half the number being women, and they were 
especially devout. 

The closing scene of that Chandausi camp-meeting 
was the most enthusiastic hour which we witnessed 
during our visit in India. It occurred at the close of 
the blessed Sabbath, with all its privileges of relig- 
ious services from early morning till nearly ten 
o'clock that night. Souls had been saved, believers 
sanctified, and every one more or less blessed, and 
the services had risen in spirituality and power to 
the end. But now the hour of closing had come, 
and they were to leave the glad scene early next 
morning. 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 421 

Before describing this termination, to enable the 
reader to appreciate it. let me refer to the usage of 
these people in their heathen state a few years ago. 
Hindus make it a practice yearly to attend one of 
their great melas on the banks of the Ganges. One 
might call this mela an immense Hindu camp-meet- 
ing, where for nearly a week several hundred thou- 
sand people encamp on the banks of the " holy river " 
at these various shrines, and go through austerities, 
ablutions, and services in which they seek for purifi- 
cation from the sins of the past year. These services 
are consummated by an immersion of the whole per- 
son beneath the water of this river, preceded by a 
cry in which, at a given signal, the whole crowd 
unite. That yell (as it may well be called) is one of 
the most awful sounds to which a Christian ear can 
listen ! The words are, as they rush forward into the 
river, " Gunga mata ki jai, jai, jai ! " The meaning 
is, " Yictory, victory, victory to the holy Ganges!" 
When our people " walked according to the course of 
this world " and its idolatry, this was their cry and 
their confidence. In this rested their highest hopes 
of salvation. But now, "in Christ Jesus," how sig- 
nificant is the change which they have made ! Let 
me describe it. 

The presiding elder, Brother Thomas, at ten 
o'clock that Sunday night, reminded them one thing 
more, according to their usage, remained to be done 
to consummate and close their camp-meeting. They 



422 Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 

understood it, and tlie preparations had been made 
in tlie tall forest outside the line of tents, where fires 
blazed to give light. Commencing at the stand, we 
filed out singing, and soon formed a complete circle 
of eight hundred people beneath the tall trees. Here 
the preachers and ourselves stood in line, and the en- 
tire eight hundred slowly marched again till they 
passed and shook hands with each of us, while the 
singing, the shouts of joy, and flowing tears all at- 
tested the gladness of these redeemed people ! The 
circle was reformed, and the missionaries and our- 
selves stood in the center, and then they sang over 
and over again, as though they did not know when 
to stop, 

"I'm the child of a King." 
" The sweet by and by," etc. 

A pause was now called, and they then requested I 
should once more address them, perhaps for the last 
time. This I did, on the sacred freedom which our 
Church secured to them in these extraordinary means 
of grace for their enjoyment and help, as well as on 
the prospect which they had, if faithful, of joining in 
the glad redemption song, " clothed in white robes 
and palms in their hands," where we hoped to meet 
them, though we could not expect to see them again 
on earth. The elder then said, "Now, brethren and 
sisters, I want you, before our final shout of victory 
is given, to unite in a loving Christian acclamation for 
Dr. and Mrs. Butler, the founders of our mission ; " 



From Boston to Bareilly. 423 

and lie led the way, and tlie forest rang with the ap- 
plause of those grateful hearts ! He here paused, as 
if realizing what all this implied, and called out again, 
" Has not this been a happy occasion ? Are we not 
all very happy ? " And there came, in response, the 
mighty united cry, " Yes, yes, yes ! " This brought 
us to the final act, and to the recognition of the honor 
due that "l^ame which is above every name," and 
which they now love to celebrate as the closing utter- 
ance of their camp-meeting. The elder asked, " Are 
you ready ? " They understood, and seemed to stand 
firmer in their place, and each hand prepared to rise 
toward heaven, as they answered back, "Yes ; ready." 
Up went the elder's hand, and theirs with his, and, 
like the voice of one man, the eight hundred shouted 
out : " Isa Masih ki jai, jai, jai !" which is, " Victory, 
victory, victory to Jesus Christ ! " The effect was 
thrilling, all the more so by the contrast which it sug- 
gested of their utterances "in the former days of 
their ignorance." I looked up into the clear, calm 
heavens, toward which their waving hands were 
pointing so triumphantly, and into which their glad 
acclaim was entering, 

" And the happy stars above them seemed 
To brighten as they passed ! " 

I felt sure that He who made those stars was looking 
down in love upon the adoring audience, and that 
their ascription of " victory " to him was accepted. 



42i From Boston to Bareilly. 

No doubt the blessed ones above sympathized with 
that scene, where these redeemed idolaters w^ere do- 
ino^ their best to unite with the anthem of the skies 
in giving glory to their common Lord. Early next 
morning we took our departure, and the glad crowd 
entered the train, still singing. Passing the engine I 
saw that the engineer was a native, and that he was 
looking down most benignly upon the people in their 
joy. It was to me a great surprise, for hitherto I 
understood that even the natives would demur to ride 
in a train not controlled by a w^hite man, deeming 
their own race inadequate to drive it. But here was 
a native engineer, and no objection. Yes ; on inquiry 
they told me he was a Christian and a member of our 
Church, who, in the good use of the education we had 
given him, and his sobriety and intelligence, had risen 
from the rank of a stoker to be an engineer, and a 
good one, too, fully trusted by the railroad company, 
who had elected him to the position on the failure, 
through intemperance, of his English predecessor. 
The train rolled out of the station, the happy people 
on board ^'singing lustily and with good courage," 
while now and again they would clap their hands in 
sympathy with their singing (another little peculiarity 
of theirs, and I think a native habit of expressing joy). 
The Christians claim it as a biblical right, for " the 
sweet singer of Israel " teaches them so : " O clap 
your hands, all ye people ! " Psa. xlvii, 1. And so 
Isaiah (chap. Iv, 12) calls upon '' the trees of the field " 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 425 

to do the same in their exultation. They have Heav- 
en's warrant for their privilege as well as for their 
" shouts " of joy. Thank God, that such an hour has 
come, when these external manifestations are heard in 
India, in the significance which makes them accept- 
able to God, being the outward and audible expres- 
sions of the inward, unearthly peace and joy which 
his Gospel has implanted in their hearts ! 



426 From Boston to Bakeilly. 



CHAPTER IX. 

" Come, then, thou King of kings and Lord of lords ! 

Sun-like, from out thy royal chambers come ! 

The robes of thine imperial majesty 

Haste to put on ; and in thy right hand grasp 

That scepter of unlimited dominion 

Which thine Almighty Father hath bestowed ; 

Even so. Lord Jesus, come ! yea, quickly come ! 

For 'tis the voice of thine own Bride that calls, 

And all creation sighs to be renewed." 

— In imitation of Milton, by Dr. MitcheU. 

The N'orth India Annual Conference was to com- 
mence its sessions in the city of Cawnpore on the 9th 
of January, and we now hastened forward to be in 
time to enjoy the great opportunity of meeting the 
Conference which I saw organized nineteen years 
before, under the presidency of Bishop Thomson. I 
was now in good measure prepared for the enlarge- 
ment and great increase of power which I was to find 
there. But, what most of all impressed me with 
surprise and delight, as intimating the future, was 
the fact that the native members of this legal Con- 
ference are already in the majority. The American 
members are now outnumbered. Several of those 
who make up this native majority were the orphan 
boys of an earlier day; and here they sat, as the 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 427 

peers, ecclesiastically, of the missionaries who so ably 
represent the home Church. 

Lest any one might suppose that I, as the founder 
of this work, was influenced in describing this Con- 
ference and the results of its labor, I here prefer to 
avail myself of the words of another and competent 
witness, Rev. Dr. Thoburn, who, as delegate from 
the South India Conference, visited this J^orth India 
Conference at its recent session at Bareilly (such 
occasions being in all essential respects identical). 
The doctor thus writes of what he found : 

"The jpersonnel of the Conference has greatly 
changed since its first organization, in December, 
1864. There were then eighteen American and 
European members, and four native preachers were 
admitted on trial. At the recent session in Bareillv 
twenty-one American and twenty-five native mem- 
bers were present. The foreigners were in a minor- 
ity, and all parties were well aware that the minority 
must grow relatively smaller with every succeeding 
year. Fifteen years ago it was not uncommon to 
hear predictions of troublous times if ever the native 
element should gain the numerical ascendency in the 
Conference ; but now that that contingency has be- 
come an accomplished fact, no evil result of any kind 
is apparent. On the other hand, all seemed to re- 
joice in the result, and instead of anticipating trouble 
in the future, native members of Conference are 
cordially admitted on terms of perfect equality with 



428 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

their American brethren, and no misgiving is either 
expressed or felt. These American brethren practi- 
cally place their characters in the hands of their na- 
tive brethren. Each missionary is amenable to the 
Annual Conference for his moral and ecclesiastical 
standing, and, if put on trial, can be expelled by a ma- 
jority vote. In this Con ference the natives are in the 
majority ; but no American member has the slightest 
unwillingness to trust his character to their keeping. 

" Another marked and more unexpected change in 
the perso7inel of the Conference is seen in the pres- 
ence of seventeen lady missionaries. These, added 
to fourteen wives of missionaries who were present, 
gave the ladies a large numerical preponderance, and 
although these good sisters are not reckoned as mem- 
bers of Conference, yet they hold an annual meeting 
of their own, and transact a large amount of impor- 
tant business pertaining to their work. The develop- 
ment of this large and growing work is one of the 
most remarkable features of recent missionary prog- 
ress. It has been manifestly a providential move- 
ment from the first, and we think the Christian man 
who does not see the hand of God in it must be blind 
indeed. These ladies are engaged in many kinds of 
active work, and every year their sphere of useful- 
ness growls wider and more important. 

" The devotional meetings of the I^orth India Con- 
ference are always seasons of interest, and have, on 
some occasions, been scenes of remarkable blessing. 



FuoM Boston to Baeeilly. 429 

It is a good custom, and one worthy of imitation 
elsewhere, for the brethren and sisters to gather to- 
gether after tea in the evening and spend an hour or 
two in prayer and conversation. These social meet- 
ings were greatly blessed at the recent session, and 
will long be gratefully remembered by those who 
were fortunate enough to be present. They were 
not only seasons of great blessing, but the gatherings 
partook largely of the character of a large family re- 
union, and were thus doubly blessed to the company 
which nightly assembled. 

" The work of the Conference was reported as in a 
very prosperous condition. Steadily, and. somewhat 
rapidly, the native Christians of Oude, E-ohilcund, 
Kumaon, and Gurhwal, are increasing in numbers, 
and every year the momentum of the gathering mass 
is increasing. The whole number of baptized com- 
municants under the care of the Conference is 4,573, 
a number which indicates a Christian population of, 
perhaps, ten thousand or more. The whole number 
of pupils in the schools of various grades is 12,119. 
In the Sunday-schools the extraordinary number of 
18,069 was reported, of whom 4,364 were Christians, 
and 13,705 non-Christians. The steady growth of 
the Sunday-school work under the care of this Con- 
ference is one of the most striking features of recent 
missionary work in India. The number of adult 
baptisms reported for 1884 was 347. The amount 
contributed by the native churches toward the 



430 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

support of their own pastors during the year was 
1,882 rupees. Six Hindustani preachers were admit- 
ted on trial. 

" Bishop Hurst was gladly welcomed by the breth- 
ren, and his administration highly appreciated. The 
missionary circle of Bareilly, as well as other Chris- 
tian friends, gave the Conference a warm welcome, 
and the strangers who were present were greatly 
pleased and delighted with their visit to Bareilly, 
and especially with their stay in the charming little 
mission settlement. The theological school build- 
ing, the church, the orphanage, the hospital, the mis- 
sion houses, and the school and church in the city, 
all combine to make a group of buildings which, on 
the Chinese coast, would be called a settlement, or 
* concession.' Those who knew Bareilly in earlier 
days, and remembered how the first foundations were 
laid, looked with grateful wonder at the changed 
scenes around them. The resident missionaries re- 
ported a hopeful state of things in the city and dis- 
trict. The cause of Christ is steadily marching for- 
ward, and all manner of barriers are giving w^ay. 
May God still more abundantly bless the labors of 
his people in Bareilly, and in all the region in which 
those North Indian brethren labor, and multiply 
them and their people a hundred-fold ! " 

These Annual Conferences hold their sessions alter- 
nately at Moradabad, Bareilly, Shahjahanpore, Luck- 
now, and Cawnpore. Our brethren of other Churches 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 431 

— Congregational, Baptist, and Presbyterian — find 
them to be occasions of such interest and spiritual 
profit that they come from considerable distances to 
attend them. In studying our methods and progress, 
we are glad to know that they find suggestions which 
are useful to them when they return to their own 
fields of labor. My readers will remember that in 
addition to this body of ministers forming the l^orth 
India Annual Conference, we have about one hundred 
other native preachers, who being only " local " — 
though fully employed in supplying the work — are 
not members of this legal Conference, but yet hold 
a membership in the four District Conferences al- 
ready described, and are amenable to the disciplinary 
arrangements as thus administered. In the District 
Conferences the business is transacted entirely in the 
Hindustanee language, and by resolution of this 
Annual Conference, at its last session, the English 
tongue will be discontinued at its next session, and 
henceforth all the business of North India Methodism 
will be conducted in the language of the country. 
This fact will mark an epoch in the completeness 
and efficiency of our work in India, and grows out of 
the necessity of deferring to the intelligent judg- 
ment and co-operation of our native brethren, who 
should, therefore, understand every thing that is said 
and done. 

I was deeply interested all through the Conference 
in listening to the facts and figures which our breth- 



432 Peom Boston to Baeeilly. 

ren were handling. In matters of which, in my days 
there, we spoke and rejoiced over increases in oar 
statistical returns which did not rise above tens and 
hundreds — here they were reporting similar interests, 
but the tens had changed to hundreds, and the hun- 
dreds to thousands ! Take the single item of Sunday- 
schools. At the recent Conference it was found that 
during the year the Sunday-schools had increased 
from 344 to 430, and the increase of pupils during 
the year was found to be 1,969. Again, in the Rohil- 
cund District 50 new Christian day-schools had been 
organized during the year (chiefly by Brother Gouch- 
er's aid), and 30 more in the Oude District ; 80 new 
day-schools and 86 new Sunday-schools in one year 
in these two districts ! 

But I need not continue the elucidations of the 
prosperity which God is giving to the labors of these 
faithful servants of the Church, as the statistical re- 
turns will present the facts fully in the tabular state- 
ment, which will appear a few pages farther on, and 
there my readers can consult them at their leisure and 
see how the Head of the Church has honored the 
faith and devotion of our j^orth India brethren. 

The number of foreign missionaries which, after 
due consideration of the great centers to be occupied, I 
was led, in 1858, to ask for from the Missionary Society 
was twenty-four. That number they granted and have 
since retained there. In view of the climate which 
they have to endure and the exhausting nature of 



Fkom Boston to Baeetlly. 433 

their toil upon the health and constitution of foreign- 
ers, they have stood well and faithfully to their work. 
Four of their number have died, and four more have 
been permanently removed from the field by failing 
health. Of the remainder, four have been in the 
work fourteen years ; one for sixteen years ; two for 
twenty years; four for twenty-two years; two for 
twenty-three years, and three for twenty -five years each. 
This is, so far as I know, as good a showing for devo- 
tion to mission service of men still effective, as any 
mission in India can present to the Church which 
they serve. Their vacations have been well earned, 
and they have used them to recuperate their energies 
and return to their beloved work. The remaining 
members of the Conference have seen but thirteen 
years or less of service. 

It may be observed that the climate has pressed 
more severely upon the ladies of the mission than it 
has upon their husbands the missionaries, who have 
to be out so much more in the hot sun and necessarily 
more exposed. Yet so it is. While only four of the 
brethren have died during the twenty-five years, 
twelve of the ladies have gone down to the grave. 
Six of these have died in India. It is to be lamented 
that so many of these devoted ladies were physically 
unable to cope with the debilitating effects of the 
climate, and their useful lives were so soon ended. 
But they were honored of God in their service, and 

when they died they closed life in Christian triumph, 

28 



434 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

and left memories which are still fragrant in the 
India Mission. In building and arranging homes for 
the mission I acted on the conviction that a large 
roomy house, giving space for storing plenty of the 
fresh morning air to be used during the day, was one 
of the first essentials of health and life in India. 
They gratefully admit that my policy in providing 
them such homes, adapted to the climate, has done 
much in promoting their health and prolonging the 
period of their active usefulness. 

It is also a fact, which ought to be recognized, in 
gratitude to God, that not one of tlie members of his 
mission, male or female, has ever been lost at sea, 
going or coming, during the quarter of a century ; nor 
has any of them been injured or died during their 
land journeys. It bespeaks the care of Providence 
over them, and also the safety of modern methods of 
traveling. Some of the older missionaries are no 
longer the strong, erect men whom I superintended 
twenty or more years ago. Their toil has told on 
them ; their step is more feeble, and they bend more 
under their burden. But their resolution and faith 
are grander now than ever they were. The holy 
calm of sanctified resolve rests upon their face and 
manner, and they look familiarized with victories 
won for the Lord Jesus, and evidently are expect- 
ing and prepared for even " greater things than 
these." As I sat and looked a them I could not fail 
to call to mind their early trials, in face of the organ- 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 435 

ized resistance of earth and liell to their work and its 
purposes, and of the long years of persistent toil 
which they have so unobtrusively rendered to this 
service, while the Church at home has known so 
little of them individually ; I could realize how pa- 
tiently, nevertheless, they have worked on, animated 
by the highest motives of the Christian ministry ; 
while separated by half the breadth of the earth from 
home, children, and loved ones, and even in India 
scattered forty or fifty miles from each other in their 
charges, and meeting only at their Conferences ; yet 
they have toiled on, year after year, devoted to God 
and to the objects of their pastoral care. In their 
presence I supposed I had not looked upon servants 
of God of whom more truthfully and worthily might 
be quoted the lines of Robert Swan, in his poem on 
the Sahhath^ where he says : 

" Then grant, Lord, mine earliest, latest prayer, 
That some sequestered hamlet be my care ; 
"Where from all pride and all ambition free, 
Save that of winning many souls to thee, 
I may, unnoticed, pass my tranquil days. 
And lead my flock in wisdom's pleasant ways ; 
And meet in bliss, when every trial is o'er, 
The little flock I loved so well before." 

The ability and devotion of the native members of 
this Conference were so much beyond what they were 
in my day that I was greatly delighted. Their good 
training and association with the foreign brethren 
have evidently drawn them into an intelligent sym- 



436 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

patliy witli our Methodistic ways and spirit, and is 
quietly but decidedly preparing tliem for the day 
when the Church will transfer to their race the en- 
tire charge of their own religious affairs. I would, 
however, earnestly deprecate this being done before 
they are properly prepared for it," in view especially 
of the magnitude of the interests involved and the 
work to be done. If India were an island or a little 
country with five or ten millions of people, the Church 
might safely begin to agitate this question within a 
few years. With twenty millions of souls in our own 
particular field, and a sixth of the human race right 
around them, it becomes us to be very careful what 
we propose if we are not to risk the blessed work so 
far accomplished. But the Church may as well settle 
down at once to the conviction that India is not likely 
to be evangelized within a life-time. This glorious 
prize is not going to be laid at the feet of the blessed 
Master by one generation of Christian toilers. It took 
primitive Christianity, with all its inspiration, mira- 
cles, and supernatural power, more than three hundred 
years to Christianize, even nominally, the Roman em- 
pire, including in all fewer millions than India con- 
tains to day ! If we can save India in one hundred 
years, we shall move three times faster than early 
Christianity did. But if it takes two hundred years 
for its accomplishment, we shall do well, and India will 
be worth the time and expense ; for her evangeliza- 
tion would be " life from the dead," for all surround- 



Feom Boston to Baketlly. 437 

ing nations ! So our Churcli lias to receive into lier 
heart the solemn conviction that she has hard work 
before her there ; that it is going to demand many 
millions of her money and hundreds of her sons and 
daughters to accomplish India's redemption. Are we 
worthy of the success by the hard labor it demands ? 
But, if we shrink back from the self-denial and sacri- 
fice required by the duty to which God has called us, 
then surely woe must be to us, and to all that we 
selfishly reserve from God. Our wealth and our 
blessings may become a snare and a curse to us. But, 
the Almighty, in that case, will not be defeated in 
his object. If he finds us unworthy of the labor and 
the honor he can cut us off, and seek another Church 
and people, with larger faith and more worthy liber- 
ality, to consummate for him the grand work of the 
redemption of India ! O may God have mercy on our 
Methodist Church, by arousing her to her duty, so that 
she may not fail in the great service which he has at 
last brought within her reach to accomplish for him ! 
When we begin to give an average of four or five 
dollars per member to this w^ork, and even then rec- 
ognize that it can only be consummated " by patient 
continuance in well-doing," we may consider that 
we have commenced in earnest, and can then expect 
to see earth's redemption drawing nigh. At pres- 
ent the great heart of the Church is not aroused or 
in earnest in this work. We are playing at mis- 
sions ; and a thousand years of her present liberality 



438 Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

will not suffice to measure up with tlie increase of 
population, or overtake the death rate, or save the 
one thousand five hundred millions of the popula- 
tion of the world ! The duty would not only be 
done in one tenth part of the time, but it would cost 
far less in money, if we were to arouse ourselves to 
fulfill our Lord's command with means commensu- 
rate for its execution, and a high resolve which 
would never relax its diligence until this work was 
accomplished, and his Gospel preached to "every 
creature under heaven." 

I am satisfied, from further inquiry made at this 
Conference, the question of self-support is being fairly 
placed before our native members. Candor requires 
us to remember that we usually reduce these people 
to poverty by Christianizing them. They have to 
" forsake all " to follow Christ, having, when baptized, 
to surrender home and family ties and property, 
" hated of all for his name's sake." Counted as 
dead ; and, indeed, funeral ceremonies have been per- 
formed for many of them ; if it were not for the pres- 
ence of English law hundreds of them would be mur- 
dered for becoming Christians. Suffering thus " the 
loss of all things," they have to begin in absolute pov- 
erty to seek a living. Surely such persecuted and be- 
reaved people should be allowed sufficient time ere 
the burden of supporting their pastors is required of 
them. To demand it too soon is to discourage and 
crush them. Let them have reasonable time and 



Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 439 

thej will do a Christian's duty in this matter. What 
are the facts in this case ? 

A dollar in India means far more than it does in 
this country. There the wages of a laboring man, 
under the best circumstances, is but two annas per 
day (6i cents), and of an artisan just double that 
amount. Of course education (which our converts 
are anxious at once to obtain) gives them a far better 
chance of a living, but it takes some years to acquire 
it. The duty of giving, "as God hath prospered 
them," is taught, and even urged upon all our people 
from the first, and by none more earnestly than by 
our native preachers. They very carefully examine 
at each District Conference what each charge has 
contributed. The question is considered in all the 
Quarterly Conferences. How fully and intelligently 
this duty of self-help is recognized by our mission 
may be illustrated by a fact which occurred lately. 
A prize was offered for the best essay on " Self- 
support in the ISTative Church." The proposition at 
once awakened the attention of writers among the 
various missions of l^orth India. Twenty-four com- 
petitors sent in their essays to the examining com- 
mittee in due time, but both the prizes were won by 
two members of our own mission : Isaac Fieldbrave, 
one of our native ministers, and W. Earney, of our 
Press at Lucknow. They were both furnished in the 
native language and are now published. So that it has 
been said, to our credit, that " the mission of the Meth- 



MO Feom Boston to Eareilly. 

odist Episcopal Church is one of the foremost among 
the missions in India in education on this subject." 

Reasonable effort is made to keep the salaries of 
our native preachers at about that level to which our 
native churches may hope to come in their ability to 
pay them ere long. The lowest salary paid is about 
$5 per month, and the highest about $17. Age, abil- 
ity, family claims, etc., make the difference between 
these extremes. The Lucknow native church pays 
its pastor's entire salary (35 rupees per month), and 
now asks nothing of our Missionary Society. Bareilly, 
Budaon, Gonda, Cawnpore, Setapore, and Moradabad 
are close behind in their effort to reach the same 
result. The rest of the congregations give from 
3 rupees up to 54 rupees each, and the total contri- 
bution for this purpose from the native churches for 
the past year was 1,882 rupees by the 4,573 India 
members. Even already, then, we may ask the candid 
judgment of the home Church upon this exhibit. If 
there be no error in these figures, I find that, com- 
paring this liberality of the humble class of our In- 
dia members with our laboring class at home, where 
wages are, say $1 50 per day (which is twenty-four 
times larger than the Hindu receives for his toil), the 
Methodist in the valley of the Ganges pays what would 
be equal to $4 per capita from the American Methodist, 
with his higher ability, for the support of his pastor. 
Besides, he contributes his humble help to the mis- 
sionary and other collections. In a church of three 



From Boston to Bareillt. Ml 

hundred members these $4: would yield here a $1,200 
income to the charge. 

The total amount raised for self-support in India 
from our native and English churches last year was 
$4,911 20. Adding the missionary collection, $222 80, 
to which our native members contributed their share, 
and we have a total of $6,133 20 contributed to help 
our Missionary Society to sustain their ministry in 
India. And this is a dona fide contribution — not 
raised in name and expended there without relieving 
our Society to that extent. It is raised as missionary 
money and for self-support, and is accounted for to 
the Society, which is helped to that extent, instead of 
having to bear the entire cost of ministerial support 
in the North India Conference. Let it be borne in 
mind, also, that this is but the ministerial aspect of the 
contributions, and is only about one sixth of what is 
raised in E^orth India. The rest will be found re- 
ported farther on, as aid for schools, orphanages, re- 
pairs, and other benevolences, to the extent of over 
$30,000 per annum. If ever there was a mission that 
for its age was a grand example to Christendom of 
self-help and extent of unencumbered property, this 
ISTorth India Conference is that mission. If our 
Society had to bear the whole burden of that work it 
w^ould have to pay this $30,000 more per annum 
than what is now required from our missionary funds. 
The Society " devised liberal things," and " by liberal 
things they stand" to-day. While they have the 



442 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

satisfaction, also, of knowing that the self-support 
from our native members for their own pastors is 
quietly but decidedly on the increase all the time, 
and will yet, as soon as their ability becomes equal to 
the burden, assume the entire charge and release the 
Society from further claim on this account. Our 
native ministry long to cee that day as much as we 
ourselves do, and are training their people to antici- 
pate and w^ork on to it. Brother Badley is fully 
justified in saying, as he does in his review of our 
India ministry : " We are proud of our native 
preachers. Most of them could get from thirty to 
fifty per cent, higher salaries were they to give up 
preaching and enter secular life ; that they prefer to 
preach the Gospel shows their earnestness." " The 
Church at home, no less than its missionaries in India, 
has reason to rejoice that the Hindus, when con- 
verted, make earnest and successful preachers of the 
Gospel." " In this respect, at least, we in India have 
great reason for gratitude to God." These grateful 
words are all the more impressive when we remem- 
ber that they are uttered of the first generation of 
India Methodist preachers. Those who have been 
led up from a condition of Hindu society, where 
lying, selfishness, and insincerity are, and have been 
for ages past, the marked characteristics of the people. 
Each man among our preachers is an evidence of what 
divine grace and Christian training can make out of 
a race which idolatry has so deeply debased. The 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 443 

next generation of these Christians and preachers 
will rise higher still in moral sense, spiritual percep- 
tion, and refinement of character. And this will de- 
velop itself in that depth of devotion and strength 
of faith and courage which may yet make the native 
ministry of India as remarkable in Christendom as 
the heathen devotees of their race have been for their 
unparalleled asceticism and endurance of religious 
austerities. Already they are developing these quali- 
ties. May it not be asked. Where can be found 4,500 
Christians in any land who have endured more for 
Christ and Christian conviction than this native 
Church has done? One by one they have passed 
through an ordeal of which Christians at home know 
but little ; and many of them have carried crosses 
and endured self-denials which must have secured for 
them the deep sympathy of their divine Master. 

They are capable of endurance, and can appreciate 
" the higher life " of Christianity. Entire sanctifica- 
tion will suit them well — union with God, to its last 
and highest degree, will meet the yearuings of their 
souls for perfection. I can appeal to those who have 
read the wonderful Bagvat Geeta — an episode of 
the Mahabharata — and who have been solemnized 
as they have contemplated the doctrines and practices 
of the Yogees therein illustrated, whether a people 
who were fascinated by such teachings and deadness 
to the things of earth, are not likely to enter with 
ardor into the adoring contemplation of ''the mys- 



M4: Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 

tery wliich from the beginning of the world hath 
been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus 
Christ ? " If they have said, and done, and written, 
and endured all that is there depicted out of affection 
for Krishna or their other abstractions, what are 
they not capable of feeling and doing when " the love 
of Christ, which passeth knowledge," shall become 
their grand experience, and the indwelling of "the 
true eternal God" shall develop in their strong de- 
sires such a devotion to duty as this : 

"Enlarge, inflame, and fill my heart 

With boundless charity divine ; 
So shall I all my strength exert, 

And love them with a zeal like thine; 
And lead them to thy open side, 
The sheep for whom their Shepherd died ! " 

As I sat in that Conference and saw Brother An- 
drias proposing to go forth as a Christian guru to 
preach Christ without purse or scrip, and remem- 
bered that there were two others like him there, who 
asked nothing of our Society save a little support for 
their families while they gave themselves to this 
work for God and souls, I saw a strong intimation 
of that future which I anticipate. These three dev- 
otees in the J^orth India Conference have a line of 
work peculiarly their own as wandering evangelists, 
receiving their subsistence from those to whom they 
preach ; and their brethren who are in charge of sta- 
tions are in sympathy with them for all the good 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 445 

they can accomplish in gathering sonls into the 
Christian fold. May they prove to be " men full of 
the Holy Ghost and of faith," and as a self-support- 
ing evangelizing ministry may they have many to 
follow the example of their devotion ! 

The warmth of our reception by all the members of 
this Conference, native and foreigners alike, may be 
imagined by my readers, but cannot be adequately 
described by me. Perhaps it will be enough if I 
here present the gracious and hearty report which 
the committee introduced, and the Conference passed 
by a rising vote, and ordered published in their An- 
nual Minutes. Dr. M'Cabe and the kind friends who 
responded to his proposition to send us on this de- 
lightful visit have a right to know how their generous 
action was appreciated by the North India Confer- 
ence. The report was as follows : 

" The close of the year 1883 and the opening days 
of 1884 will mark an epoch in our mission history ; 
for during these days and months the loved and re- 
vered founder of the missions of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in India, the Rev. "William Butler, 
D.D., having returned from America after an ab- 
sence of nineteen years (twenty-seven from the 
founding of the mission by him), comes to review 
the scenes of his early labors, trials, and triumphs, 
and to see what has been accomplished — what God 
hath wrought — since the day he first entered the val- 
ley of the Ganges. We desire to record here our 



446 Feom Boston to Bareilly. 

gratitude to Dr. Butler, so long the Superintendent 
of these missions, that in advancing years and im- 
paired health he has found it in his heart to leave 
the quiet and comfort of his American home, and 
endure the hardships and inconveniences of travel by 
sea and by land to come once more among us and 
look upon our work. The pleasure it has given us 
to meet him, and enjoy his mature counsels, has 
been no common one. We are glad and grateful to 
him that he has gone so carefully and patiently over 
our mission field, examining our work in all its de- 
partments, and taking so much interest in all that has 
been shown him. We are glad, too, that he has been 
pleased, and that he clearly recognizes the hand of 
God in the great work planned and now carried on 
upon the lines laid down by him more than a quarter 
of a century ago. We are glad, too, that he has been 
able to give the time to look more thoroughly into 
the plans and miintticB of the work than any one who 
has yet visited our field ; and we feel confident that 
in his representation of our work before the Amer- 
ican churches, when he returns home, nothing but 
good can come to us, and that all who wish an intelli- 
gent comprehension of God's work in India will do 
well to hear Dr. Butler. We pray that his health 
and strength may be preserved for years of usefulness 
in going among the churches, and stirring them up 
to gi'eater diligence and earnestness in the cause of 
the missions. We would be greatly pleased if some 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 447 

arraDgement were made by which Dr. Butler could 
be entirely set free for deputation duty ; and we 
know the result must be a great advance in mis- 
sionary interest, intelligence, and giving. 

" The same word of welcome and pleasure on our 
part we would accord to Mrs. Butler, who has accom- 
panied her honored husband in all his travels, and 
without whose presence the visit would have been in- 
complete. She has taken the same interest in all the 
work shown her, and has partaken of Dr. Butler's 
joy and gratitude in going over the field of their 
toil among the troublous times of the Sepoy Rebell- 
ion and the following years. We have all wel- 
comed them to our midst, and heartily thank them 
for coming. We pray for their health and comfort 
in their further travels, and we shall not forget 
them, nor the pleasure their cheering visit has 
given us. 

"We desire also to send to the Rev. C. C. M'Cabe, 
D.D., of America, our hearty thanks for the worthy 
part he has taken in bringing about this oppor- 
tune visitation of Dr. Butler and Mrs. Butler. 
We would fain hope that Chaplain M'Cabe may 
find time and respite from the cares of his busy life 
to pay us a like visit at no distant day. He will 
receive a most hearty welcome in ISTorth India. We 
request our Conference Secretary to send him a letter 
bearing our fraternal greetings, and mentioning how 
much we thank him for the part he has taken in giv- 



M8 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

ing us this great pleasure — the visit from our former 
Superintendent, Dr. Butler." 

We spent nearly two months and a half visiting 
the leading stations of the South India Conference, 
and had also the privilege of attending their Annual 
Conference, held in the city of Allahabad in the 
month of November. We were received by these 
good brethren with great cordiality. They were kind 
enough to appreciate our visit, and the efforts which 
we made to become fully acquainted with their work. 
The resolutions which they passed, expressing the 
pleasure which our visit gave them, and the letter of 
the Secretary to Dr. M'Cabe, were as kind and cordial 
as were those of the North India Conference. Our 
visit to their work will long remain among the most 
pleasant remembrances of this journey. 

They were well aware that I was the representa- 
tive of a policy of missionary action somewhat differ- 
ent from their own ; but they were specially kind in 
answering my inquiries, and helping me to compre- 
hend what there was peculiar in their methods, and the 
reasons for their preference. I believe that not one 
of them doubted the hearty sympathy we had with 
them in their extended and difficult work. I am satis- 
fied that their methods are not properly or fully 
understood by some people at home, and that they are 
assumed to be more apart from the North India 
brethren in their way of working than is really the 
case. In the liberty which I will take in referring to 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 449 

the facts, I would fain present my understanding of 
tliem in the spirit of candor and genuine apprecia- 
tion of the good work which they have done, as 
well as express my own views of what I understand 
to be the present necessity of their work. In doing 
this I will try to have them represent themselves, 
as far as I can, in those points where I might be 
presumed not to be as capable as they are to place 
the facts in question before my readers for their 
information. 

To understand properly the respective work of 
these two Conferences, the dissimilar circumstances 
under which they were founded should be borne in 
mind, otherwise any comparison of the work must be 
misleading. When the mission of the South India 
Conference was begun, nearly fourteen years ago, the 
class of people whom it chiefly reached were the Eura- 
sians. These people all spoke the English language, 
had education, and were also nominally Christians, and 
were generally well off in temporal matters. They 
had been neglected by almost all denominations, so 
that when Brotlier Taylor went among them they 
gratefully responded to his interest in their spiritual 
welfare, and at once agreed to support the ministers 
whom he offered to send among them as their pastors, 
and also to build their own churches. The founding 
of such a mission was comparatively easy work, and 
was prosecuted among a people who were very grate- 
ful for the coming of the missionary among them. 
29 



450 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

But the case was far different within the bounds of 
the ISTorth India Conference. There it was the native 
population whom we chiefly sought ; people who knew 
nothing of our language, and regarded our religion 
with fear and hatred from the very first. They were 
all idolaters, without education, and knew well that 
to embrace our religion was to lose caste, property, and 
social standing, and sink to the condition of pariahs. 
They wanted to have nothing to do with us or our 
Christianity, and rose at last, in their rage, to ex- 
terminate us from their country and from the face of 
the earth. We had to risk all this hatred and bloody 
persecution, to acquire their diflacult language, to pa- 
tiently live down their prejudice, and introduce to 
their candid hearing a faith with which they had not 
one fundamental idea in common, and then lead those 
of them whom we could win to a better mind, to 
where they were at length made willing to " suffer the 
loss of all things," and bear the heaviest crosses car- 
ried by Christians anywhere in this world, into tiie 
communion of a hated and persecuted Christianity. 
Again, all this had to be done among a people whose 
law, religion, and public sentiment were most bitterly 
opposed to the education of any of their women — 
treating the idea with scorn and contempt ; and who 
united together to prevent those young men of their 
race who first accepted Christianity from having 
any home, and dooming them, so far as they could, 
to a condition of celibacy, and so preventing our Chris- 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 451 

tianitj from having any social life or standing in their 
country. 

JSTow, any person of candor can see how different 
were the conditions under which these two missions 
began their work. It was likely, and to be confi- 
dently expected, that the Eurasian race would gladly 
respond to the Christianity which came among them, 
and they were very far from persecuting each other 
for embracing it; so those who planted the Gospel 
among these grateful people had a very different 
time of it as compared with their brethren in North 
India. The wonder is, not that the South India 
brethren succeeded as well as they have done in their 
field, but that the brethren of the E^orth India Con- 
ference were enabled to endure, without flinching or 
yielding their ground, that great fight of afilictions, 
and to stand, as they do to-day, surrounded by the 
divine success which their statistics exhibit. Not 
unto them, but to the almighty grace which enabled 
them to so " triumph in Christ " in their more difii- 
cult field, do they ascribe, as is due, all the honor of 
their success. But the distinction should be borne in 
mind in order that God may have the glory due unto 
his name. 

Then, again, must be remembered the future 
which each work intimates. The Eurasian and En- 
glish-speaking population of India is a very limited 
one. It is considered that they are not more than 
three hundred and fifty thousand in number. Brother 



452 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

Taylor's efforts for their religious welfare and his 
success provoked the zeal of other denominations, 
which had so long neglected these people, and to-day 
their good is more generally sought; so that the 
brethren of the South India Conference now find 
others competing with them in this limited field. 
They commenced among nominal Christians, and 
their success was chiefly at the first ; their progress 
since has been rather slow. When the South India 
Conference was organized, nine years ago, they had 
1,596 members, which, six years after, had increased 
to 2,040, an increase of about 100 each year. Three 
yjears ago these figures stood at 2,062, but there lias 
of late been a decrease, the numbers reported at the 
last session of the Conference being but 1,898. It 
has been different in the North India Conference; 
during the above six years its membership was in- 
creased by 1,188 souls. Though laboring among hos- 
tile heathen, God has yearly added to their numbers. 
At tire close of the Sepoy Rebellion, in 1858, the 
work began with three members, won from heathen- 
ism ; at the last session of the North India Confer- 
ence there was reported 4,5Y3 ; while all the other sta- 
tistics, numerical and financial, show a corresponding 
condition of progress. 

To evidence that in these remarks I am entirely 
within the facts, I will here quote the admission of 
one who has a right to speak for his Conference. 
Dr. Thoburn, of the South India Conference, says, in 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 453 

The Indian Witness for December 6, 1884, in review- 
ing the work of tlie year then jnst conchided : 

" For some years past the majority of the churches 
in the South India Conference have been doing little 
more than holding their own, and the time has surely 
come for them to consider their responsibilities anew, 
to repent of past unfaithfulness, and to consecrate 
themselves to better service in the years to come. 

" Some of the scattered flocks are very weak, and 
need to quadruple their numerical strength in order 
to be able to hold the position which they occupy. 
Some are falling back into a state of chronic discour- 
agement, and need to gird on their armor anew, and 
go forth, as in former days, to battle and to victory. 
The time is opportune for sounding a new call to 
arms all along the line. 

" If we are to march on to a new career of victory 
we must all at once agree to leave the things which 
are behind. In all the past the Church of Christ has 
been strangely prone to cling to the things which are 
behind. The failure of plans, the differences of breth- 
ren, the strife about policies, the defeats or victories 
of other days, all are to be left behind. We are to 
enter upon the work before us as if it were all 
new." 

My sole object in what I write here is to draw the 
sympathetic attention of the Church to the position 
and necessity of these good brethren. It seems to 
me that Providence is crowding them out to a higher 



454: From Boston to Baeeilly. 

and more important work than what they have been 
doing — a work more worthy of their power and faith. 
While holding well in hand the good accomplished 
among the Eurasian race, they see aronnd their scat- 
tered stations two hundred and forty millions of hea- 
then, for whom Christ died, who are "perishing for 
lack of knowledge. " This greater work, of doing their 
duty to the unsaved millions of idolaters within the 
bounds of that Conference, is the question that is now 
pressing upon them so seriously for consideration. 
They dare not close their ears to the call on behalf of 
these dying multitudes within their reach. God and 
our Church expect them to save these people ; but 
they clearly see that they are not accomplishing it ; 
yet they have planned and resolved and made such 
efforts as they could consistently with the other and 
imperative duties that press so heavily upon them. 
The financial burdens borne have been so serious, 
the claims of their English charges so exacting, and 
the pressure upon health and life in this climate so 
constant, that they have done and endured all that 
good men could do, without being able now to pre- 
sent to the Church the evidence that they can also 
reach and save the heathen, too, without help from 
home. 

Surely, therefore, the hour has arrived, these things 
being so, when the question should be considered 
both by them and by the Church which they serve. 
Suitable men for this additional work, and financial 



afe 



Fbom Boston to Baeeilly. 455 

help to pay tlieir passages and otherwise assist them 
in their efforts, are imperatively necessary. 

They desire no aid for their English-speaking 
work. They tenaciously hold, as they justly may, 
that their cherished principle of self-support is there- 
in vindicated, and they cannot allow it to be com- 
promised. They had even hoped they could have 
made that work the basis from which they might 
have been enabled to develop missions among the 
heathen millions around them, and for years they 
have tried to do this. But their hearts are sad that 
their statistics do not show a larger measure of suc- 
cess on this line. 

I took the liberty of saying to these brethren, that 
in this they were attempting to carry a load too 
great for what resources were available to them ; and 
I feared further perseverance in the effort could not 
secure the expansion which they so earnestly seek. 
In saying this, I had before me the fact that they are 
not the first mission in India that has made a similar 
effort, and after many years have but little results to 
show for their devotion and self-sacrifice. There 
were one or two such in ISTorth India which I vis- 
ited when about to lay the foundation of the ITorth 
India Mission, and now, when I returned and in- 
quired for the outcome of such seK-denying labors, I 
was pained to learn how small were the results after 
more than thirty years of faithful and self-denying 
toil. Such missions certainly do not seem to have 



456 Fjrom Boston to Baeeilly. 

paid for the health and life that were given to them. 
It may be there is something in the plans and policy 
of the South India Mission which will yield far 
different results in success among the heathen (and 
it is only of work among the heathen that I am here 
speaking) after the same term of years has passed 
over. But I was not able to see intimations of it, and 
especially in view of the size and power of that de- 
voted Conference. 

Still, every good man should be ready to rejoice if 
they could, by their success on this line, show Christen- 
dom a more economical and rapid method of evan- 
gelizing the heathen millions around them. This is 
what we are all aiming to accomplish. At any risk 
or cost of self-denial let us have men saved. Even if 
by going barefooted and subsisting on native fare, 
as some of those I have referred to did — and as 
Major Tucker, head of the India Salvation Army, 
does to-day — we can get more heathen saved in the 
same length of time, with all the clear risk of health 
or life, there are numbers of devoted servants of God 
in the evangelical missions in India that would not 
hesitate for a day, or count life or health dear unto 
them, to secure the greater good. But the experi- 
ments — and some of them have been costly in conse- 
crated life that have been tried — have not given evi- 
dence, or furnished the success that should now lead 
God's servants to imitate such examples. Our North 
India Mission was developed on a different method. 



From Boston to Baeeillt. 457 

Tlie results are before the Church. How often was I 
congratulated on these results, while last in India, by 
ministers and laymen of other missions, who rejoiced 
with us in the prosperity vouchsafed by the Head of 
the Church to the plans employed by our parent 
Board for evangelizing the heathen. Such has been 
the hand of God upon us for good, that no mis- 
sion in India of the same age has had such a develop- 
ment, not in one point only, but in all respects — a 
harmonious development of all the various interests 
which make up the life and power of a mission — • 
numerical, financial, literary, and spiritual — and pre- 
pare it for a sustained growth and great success in 
the future. The statistical tables will furnish abun- 
dant evidence of this. 

Our brethren of South India entertain a holy horror 
of having a body of native preachers supported by 
foreign money, generation after generation, stipendi- 
aries upon missionary funds, while the churches they 
serve are, in a great degree, left free from the obliga- 
tion of self-denial and liberality which should sup- 
port their native pastors. Herein I heartily sympa- 
thize with them, and would be sorry to realize that I 
was the founder of such a mission. I am aware that 
our brethren need not look far to find evidences of 
such a policy. But it is not the policy of the North 
India Mission. Bearing in mind the explanations 
already given and repeated in these pages, and, in 
view of the facts to be presented in the statistics, 



458 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

that mission can claim that, while thev have paid sal- 
aries — as all missions must do at first, while ^e native 
preachers are collecting congregations, and instruct- 
ing them in Christianity and the duties of the relig- 
ious life — we have never allowed them to settle down 
into the notion of being pensioners of our Missionary 
Society. As soon as possible we have made them 
understand that they should teach their people that a 
mission which was not going to be self-sustaining was 
not wortli founding, and that they must look forward 
at no distant day to take the entire burden upon their 
own shoulders, and let our Society go elsewhere to 
evangelize other people ; that to secure this end, they 
must begin to pay something, as God has prospered 
them, toward the salary of their preacher, increas- 
ing it year by year as able, and look to the Society 
only for the balance that they could not yet raise 
themselves. This was included in my addresses at 
each of the District Conferences ; and I found our 
native ministry in sympathy with me on this subject 
of self-support. I have given the reasons why pa- 
tience should be exercised with these people, so many 
of whom are poor, and persecuted as well, and proper 
time be granted them to reach the position of a self- 
sustaining Christianity. Already they are, I believe, 
ahead of any other mission of their age and size in this 
grace, and the Church can trust them for the future. 
Besides, it should not be forgotten that the amount 
of missionary money devoted to the support of native 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 459 

preachers is very small. If out of the yearly appro- 
priations we take the amount necessary for the sup- 
port of the missionaries sent from America, and for 
buildings, for day and Sunday schools, for the press 
and orphanages, for college and theological seminary, 
and kindred objects, the amount furnished toward 
the support of our one hundred and fifty native 
preachers, as Brother Parker has shown, would not 
aggregate more than the sum that is contributed for 
the claims of four of our pastors in leading stations at 
home — such is the modesty of the salaries of these 
men, and also the value of the help which their mem- 
bers are contributing toward making up the amount 
paid them. My readers will be surprised to see, in 
the statistical returns, what a numerous agency the 
comparatively small amount granted, added to these 
contributions of their members, does keep employed. 
Thus aided (but not fully supported) by the Mission- 
ary Society, they are enabled to develop indigenous 
resources for work among the heathen, and are aim- 
ing at increasing these results year by year. Such is 
the result of our system. We wish the outcome was 
larger, and expect it will become more so in a steady 
growth. Yet, if any one, or any mission, can show 
us a more successful method (not on paper, or in 
prospect, but in actual fact and success), we shall thank 
God, and be grateful to them for the example. But 
we shall be excused in having confidence in our own 
method until we are shown something superior to it. 



460 From Boston to Bareillt. 

Our brethren of the Sonth India Conference see 
our work in the valley of the Ganges, and are grate- 
ful for the power and self-reliance which it is devel- 
oping. Many of them feel keenly their own inabihty 
to reach the heathen to the same extent ; but they all 
cordially appreciate what their brethren in the ^N^orth 
India Conference are accomplishing on this line, and 
the self-snpport that is springing up as a result among 
our native members. In evidence of this fact, I may 
quote some sentences from an article which appeared 
in the Christia/n Standard^ from the pen of Be v. S. 
P. Jacobs, of the South India Conference, just before 
my late visit to India. This brother is a devoted 
adherent of the policy which the majority of that 
Conference maintains ; but he admits frankly their 
inability, for want of the help which they need, but 
are unable to develop in India, to realize such success 
among the heathen as the North India Conference is 
achieving by the assistance of that help from home, 
which gave them such a vigorous commencement in 
all the departments of the work, and which is now 
continued in the increasing expectation of hastening 
on the time when the work shall become self-support- 
ing. Brother Jacobs says : 

" I must write. I can forbear no longer. These 
millions of idolaters have been moving my heart in 
their behalf. How Christians in the United States 
will meet these people in the day of judgment, how 
I shall meet them then, and how I shall answer for 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 461 

my responsibility in withholding any motive from 
Christians to help these people and so hindering their 
coming to Christ for salvation, are questions which I 
have been considering for some days. 

"About a half-dozen members of the South India 
Conference are now engaged in the native work, and 
others feel pressed to enter it. Parallel with this call 
upon men to enter the native work, is the wide door 
of invitation among the natives inquiring for the gra- 
cious light of God, and reading the gospels with avid- 
ity and listening with wonder to the story of the cross. 
Hardly a day has passed for a fortnight that a score 
or more of people have not come upon these premises 
to examine Christian life and hear Christian doctrine. 

" Just here the prospects are met by a difficulty. 
The initial work among the natives must be sup- 
ported by Christians. The 50,000 rupees of church 
debts will not permit our little force within the South 
India Conference to enter this inviting field of native 
work at once. Present progress at paying these debts 
will require from three to 'G.vg years to free our people 
from debt, provided new debts are not incurred. A 
little skirmishing, of course, is carried on from the 
base of our English work, but no movement worthy 
of the Gospel we preach, or worthy of the value of 
these perishing souls, can be made on present plans. 

" I am conscious of treading upon disputed ground 
here. There are those who will sacrifice almost any 
thing to maintain the glory of a self-supporting Con- 



462 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

ference among the heatlien. But for the South India 
Conference such a pre-eminence is already made im- 
possible by the thousands of dollars sent from America 
to aid our church or school work at Bombay, Calcutta, 
Bangalore, and Allahabad. 

" That aid from home will smite us with spiritual 
paralysis, I do not believe. With full support from 
home the native work in the IN^orth India Conference 
is rapidly becoming self-supporting. Every appoint- 
ment but one contributed to the support of the Gos- 
pel. ' Six appointments raised sums from 180 to 3,000 
rupees ; ' twenty appointments contributed sums from 
41 to 72 rupees ; and Lucknow sustained entirely the 
English and Hindustani Churches. Such is the record 
of the past year. 

" The questions submitted : Shall a general ag- 
gressive movement for the salvation of these hunger- 
ing millions be postponed? or. Shall the immediate 
occupancy of the field be taken with the aid of Chris- 
tians at home ? 

" How this help is to come, I leave for others to 
answer. At present we are among the ' irregulars ; ' 
that is, not under the management of tiie Missionary 
Society. We should be on the same footing as a home 
Conference if we received supplemental aid from the 
Missionary Society. If we continue in the present 
relation, help from home must come through unof- 
ficial channels if it comes at all." 

Perhaps no Bishop that has visited the South India 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 463 

Conference more fully appreciated their work and its 
success and needs than did Bishop Hurst, who has 
just returned from it. In a recent article in The 
Christian Advocate he speaks thus of their wants : 

" Some things are greatly needed here. It makes 
one's heart sick to see these few men — say forty-five 
— in the midst of the manv millions. The contrast is 

t/ 

awful. This Conference needs one hundred more 
men at this moment. It is a peculiar Conference. It 
has its own way of doing things, one of which is, that 
it asks no money from the Missionary Board. 

" I sincerely wish, however, that to it would be 
granted, and that it would accept, $50,000 a year 
with which to make a great advance upon the native 
population, and help to break to shreds this compact 
mass of paganism in South India. The grant should 
be for native work alone. The men are doing all in 
their power for the natives, but they are too much 
absorbed by the demands of the work among English- 
speaking people. Draw a line straight across India, 
from Bombay to Calcutta, and all south of it is the 
main field of the South India Conference. Besides, 
it extends away north-west into the Punjaub, even to 
Lahore itself, one of the main scenes of Lalla Rookh^ 
but the prosy home of millions of souls as unevangel- 
ized as was the Roman empire before the Incarnation. 
To this broad and ripe harvest let men come and 
beffin work with a will. If such men are worth hav- 
ing, the English congregations will want to absorb 



4t64: From Boston to Bakeilly. 

them immediately. But let tliem go right out among 
the natives. Let them learn the Hindustani imme- 
diately, and begin to speak it. No man has a right 
to come from America and enter either of these Con- 
ferences without burying himself in the study of the 
language where he is providentially placed, and aim- 
ing directly at the salvation of the people speak- 
ing it. 

"Another great want is schools. The need has 
been carefully discussed in the Conference, but too 
long has it been left in abeyance. Here, then, are 
the two great and terrible w^ants of the South India 
Conference — more men for the native work and 
larger funds for the schools. One cannot but w^on- 
der, however, that the work has advanced with the 
speed it already has. Our India work is a cluster of 
hard knots. The problems are terribly complex. Is 
it wonderful ? Here are the millions, with their tan- 
gled faiths and one hundred and forty-seven lan- 
guages." 

To every word of this I add my hearty Amen! 
Surely the Church and the Missionary Society must 
ere long realize the situation of these brethren. 
They ask no grant for their English work. 
They have sustained that, and will sustain it, by re- 
sources which it supplies ; but for the support of 
their schools and for the passage money of mission- 
aries sent to them, and for other interests of their 
work among the heathen, they are willing, and will 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 465 

be grateful to receive help to enable them to develop 
it vigorously. That " $50,000 per annum " would 
send a thrill of joy and strength through all that 
Conference, and the effects would be soon seen, to 
the great satisfaction of the Church, while the grant 
would release at once for its more legitimate purpose, 
in the development of their work among the heathen 
millions around them, the resources which they do 
raise, but are now obliged to use in aid of their fee- 
ble schools. 

As a body they recognize the North India Confer- 
ence plan of support as being on an equally script- 
ural basis with their method, and seem to have 
no sympathy with the exclusive or extravagant ut- 
terances of any one having an overweening confi- 
dence in certain theories of their own for doing 
mission work, even to the extent (at least by implica- 
tion) of reflecting upon the tried and approved meth- 
ods of the Church of God. They do see and know 
that the Head of the Church has used and richly 
blessed such methods, and that controversy upon 
them is not, therefore, respectful to his grace. It is 
only at home that one hears occasionally remarks of 
this sort. People in India are not likely to talk or 
write in this way in view of existing facts, and the 
brotherly sympathy and convictions entertained for 
each other's work by the Lord's servants in that land. 
Our two Conferences there have no antagonism ; 

they dwell side by side in unity and mutual apprecia- 
30 



4:66 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

tion of each other and each other's labors and success. 
Of course there may be a liability on the part of 
some brethren who are on what is called " the self- 
supporting plan " (though, of course, that phrase can 
properly apply as yet only to the work among English- 
speaking Christians) to plume themselves somewhat 
on the supposition that they are sustained by a more 
divine method than their brethren who are in connec- 
tion with the Missionary Society, and that the contri- 
butions which reach themselves through " irregular 
channels" are just a little more holy than the money 
raised and disbursed by the parent Board. They 
know well that both come from the loving sympathy 
of people at home, who are equally devoted to the 
Lord's missionary work, and that each is followed 
by their earnest prayers. That they guard against 
the temptation to think or speak otherwise is evi- 
denced by the following editorial in the Indian Wit- 
ness of April 5, 1884, from the pen of Dr. Thoburn, 
in which he warns his brethren against allowing them- 
selves to indulge in such a weakness : 

" In Miss Tucker's letter, published in last week's 
Indian Witness, there is a thought which deserves to 
have attention particularly drawn to it. The writer 
said : ' One whom the Lord graciously jpermits to be 
enlisted for life, one whom he enables (through no 
personal merit) to be independent of missionary 
funds, may,' etc. There is a temptation to mission- 
aries who derive their support through irregular 



Fkom Boston to Baeetllt. 467 

^ channels to tliink mucli of themselves on that ac- 
count, and to look down n23on their brethren as per- 
sons of inferior faith. This is worse than a mistake ; 
it is a snare to the men who act and think so. As 
our correspondent puts it, the Lord may permit some 
of his servants to find their support at a side stream, 
but the main channel is his providing none the less. 
The Church at large would have no opportunity of 
promoting the cause of the kingdom in foreign coun- 
tries if God did not lay out a broad and deep channel 
for their contributions, and direct his missionaries 
thither for their supplies. This providential arrange- 
ment is the means by which the Church at home and 
the missionaries abroad are taught to feel that they 
have a common interest in the evangelization of the 
world." 

I was equally pleased to find among our brethren 
in the South India Conference a good common-sense 
view of what is entitled " The Pauline Method of 
Missions," and a freedom from any theory that would 
strain the teaching of the Scriptures upon this sub- 
ject. They know, as well as we do, that St. Paul 
had no one plan — no hard-and-fast rule — to which he 
adhered, under all circumstances, as a means and 
method of doing missionary work. Hence, while 
they claim for themselves that they are Pauline in 
their procedure, they concede, with full frankness, 
that their brethren of the N'orth India Conference 
are also working on Pauline methods. This is made 



468 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

so manifest in a recent editorial of Dr. Thobilrn's, 
that I feel it a privilege to transfer most of the arti- 
cle to my pages, in the hope that its perusal will tend 
to clear away the mist which has arisen around this 
subject at home, and lead the friends of both Confer- 
ences to rejoice in the unity of sentiment on this sub- 
ject, which exists among all our brethren in India. 
In the Indian Witness for May 2, 1885, Dr. Thoburn 
writes : 

The Pauline Method of Missions. 

" A correspondent has drawn our attention to a 
recent article in the Sunday-School Times, in which 
tlie above subject is discussed from a stand-point 
wholly different from the one which is usually as- 
sumed when it is under review. The writer affirms 
that the great missionary apostle carefully refrained 
from taking money from those to whom he carried 
the Gospel, lest they might be tempted to think he 
sought, not them, but theirs ; and that he either sup- 
ported himself by his own labor, or accepted contri- 
butions for himself and those with him from distant 
Churches. This is certainly a new interpretation of 
his policy, but, like most of the theories which are 
put before the public as ' Pauline,' it is very imper- 
fect, and sets forth much less than half the truth. 

" The apostle Paul was a man of robust common 
sense, and was intensely practical in all his plans and 
purposes. In discussing this question of missionary 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 469 

support, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (chap, 
ix, 22), he says that he was ' made all things to all 
men ; ' that is, that he adapted his policy to the char- 
acter and circumstances of the people among whom 
he went preaching the word. In Philippi he adopted 
the policy of ^ self-support ;' that is, he permitted those 
to whom he preached to provide for all his wants. 
He did this, too, under circumstances which proba- 
bly called for a sacrifice of pride, as the person who 
entertained him free of charge was a woman, and 
probably a widow ; but her offer of hospitality was 
accepted, and at her house Paul and Silas found a 
home during their stay. At Corinth, on the other 
hand, a very different policy was adopted. At the 
outset the missionaries supported themselves by their 
own labor, for reasons which reflected more honor on 
them than on their converts. At a later day, in the 
same city and among the same people, they accepted 
' appropriations,' from Philippi, and did so with pro- 
fessions of profound satisfaction and gratitude. 

" Here we have three Pauline methods illustrated 
in the space of a very short ministry, and the refer- 
ence to these instances ought to sufiice to show how 
unwise it is to lay down a modern policy on what 
may be supposed to be Pauline lines, and insist on 
adhering to it through thick and thin, whether it 
succeeds or not. We are willing to be Pauline to 
the extent of becoming all things to all men, and of 
adopting each method in turn, or all methods in part ; 



470 From Boston to Bareilly. 

but it is more than unwise to select a single method, 
and cramp every tiling within its narrow compass, 
without regard to time, place, or circumstances. It 
is worse still — it is, indeed, almost suicidal — to get up 
what might be called a battle of policies, and make it 
seem that the man who draws his support from afar 
is disloyal to New Testament teaching, or that the 
man who is supported by those to whom he preaches 
is not a real missionary, or that the man who earns 
his living by the work of his hands is a mere secu- 
larist. The devil will be delighted to the end, if the 
friends of missions can only be induced to quit real 
work and betake themselves to quarreling over ques- 
tions of policy or method in this way. 

"We believe it is generally agreed among mission- 
aries in India — it certainly is in our own Methodist 
circles — that self-support is the ultimate policy at 
which all should aim. In reaching it, however, diflB- 
culties are met, and there are differences of opinion 
as to what extent foreign aid should be sought or 
accepted. We are clearly of the opinion that no 
hard-and-fast rule can be laid down, which will cover 
all cases and be found practicable under all circum- 
stances. Let us, then, revert to the Pauline policy of 
using our sanctified common sense to determine what 
is best in view of all the circumstances involved. Let 
us become ^ all things to all men.' If those to whom 
we go are suspicious or niggardly in spirit, let us 
scrupulously avoid taking any thing from them ; but 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 471 

if they are generous and hospitable, and if we can, by 
putting ourselves under obligation to tliem, win tlieir 
good-will, by all means let us accept tlieir support. 
Even though they be very poor, it may be God's 
plan, perhaps at the expense of our pride, to let us be 
supported by them. Elijah had to accept the support 
not only of a widow, but of a very poor widow, and 
his doing so enriched her. The widow at Philippi 
cited by Paul was not poor, but the principle illus- 
trated was the same in each case. And yet every town 
does not contain a widow who is worthy of this kind of 
ministry ; and hence till the end come it will be neces- 
sary for Christian Churches to send forth messengers 
to the regions beyond, and to contribute to their sup- 
port, or, as Paul used to say, 'communicate' with them 
' concerning giving and receiving.' " 

In order to promote permanent unity in India 
Methodism, and to provide a central authority, to 
whose decisions and guidance all matters of general 
interest will be referred, the General Conference 
of our Church provided for the organization of a 
"Central Conference" in India. This body, com- 
posed of delegates from each Annual Conference, 
was duly organized under the presidency of Bishop 
Hurst during his visit to India in 1885. It will hence- 
forth supervise all interests held in common by the 
Annual Conferences, such as the general publish- 
ing interests, education, courses of study, Sunday- 
school and tract work, theological schools, and kindred 



472 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

interests. Probably the question of boundaries of 
tlie Annual Conferences will be also left to its adjust- 
ment. Ample provision has thus been made for the 
growth, the unity, and efficiency of India Method- 
ism, on a scale commensurate with the greatness of 
the work which the evangelization of one sixth of 
the human family, contained in that wonderful land, 
will require in the bright future which has dawned 
upon it. 

I will now present the statistical retui'ns of each 
of these Conferences, as furnished at their recent 
meeting, and in the third column will combine them, 
so as to show my readers "what God has wrought" 
in India during the first quarter century of our 
Church action in that country. I was aware that in 
the usual tabular statements published in Minutes and 
Reports many important items are not usually given, 
which, nevertheless, in a comprehensive exhibit at 
the close of a term of years like this, would aid in a 
fuller realization of the work done. Accordingly, I 
drew up more complete forms and sent identical 
copies to the secretary of each Conference, and also 
to one of the presiding elders, with the request that 
they would carefully fill up, to the fullest extent 
possible, their own Conference statistics, and return 
them to me for publication in this work. This was 
done, but I had to write two or three times after 
their reception in order to obtain explanations and 
have omissions supplied. By the kindness of all con- 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 473 

cerned this at lengtli has been accomj^lished, and the 
Church has presented to her view on pp. 475-478 
a more full and complete representation of her mis- 
sions in India than she has ever before seen. 

To enable mj readers to appreciate the work which 
we now record, I will first place before them, as a 
point of comparison, the statistical return presented 
at our first annual meeting in 1858 — which was our 
starting-point at the close of the Sepoy Rebellion, and 
represents the work done at Nynee Tal during the 
six months preceding the end of that struggle. In 
connection with my visit to Delhi, I had delayed un- 
til the road from Calcutta to Agra had been so far 
cleared of the Sepoy forces that passengers could vent- 
ure to come up. The two missionary families who 
had been waiting at Calcutta then joined me, and we 
proceeded to Nynee Tal via Mussoorie, and began 
work there till peace and order had been restored in 
the plains below. It was but the infancy of our mis- 
sion. How; feeble the native work appears — " one 
member ana four probationers ! " with thirty-five at- 
tendants on worship, and forty-one scholars ! From 
this we will turn, with adoring gratitude, to contem- 
plate the results, as reported at the recent sessions of 
the two Annual Conferences into which this feeble 
work has developed, at the close of the first twenty- 
five years. This return is taken from our first Annual 
Report, as published in The Missionary Advocate for 
January, 1859 : 



4Y4: Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 

Extract from the Minutes of the First Annual Meeting of the Mission 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in Nynee Tal, August 20, 1858. 

Statistics of oue Mission in India. 

1. As to the Laborers in the field. 

Ordained Missionaries : William Butler, R. Pierce, J. L. Humphrey — 3 

Preacher on Trial : J. Parsons 1 

European Assistants : S. Knowles, Wesley Maxwell 2 

Native Preachers : JoelJanvier, Azim Ali 2 

" School Teachers : Samuel, Meabrit 2 

Total 10 

2. As to the Membership. 

The Hindustanee Class : Member 1 

" " " Probationers 4 

" " " Catechumens (orphans) 6 

Total 11 

The Mission Class : Full Members 12 

" Soldiers' " Probationers 6 

Total Members, Probationers, and Catechumens — 29 

3. As to Congregations. 

The Hindustanee Congregation, averaging 35 

" English " " 90 

4. As to Schools (2 in number). 

The Boys' School, No. Boys 25 

" Girls' " " Girls 16 

Total number of Scholars 41 

I. Stations op the Missions for the coming Year. 

W. Butler, Superintendent. 
Bareilly : J. L. Humphrey, J. Parsons, Azim Ali, Samuel. 
Lucknow : R. Pierce, Wesley Maxwell, Joel Janvier. 
Nynee Tal : S. Knowles, and a Native Teacher. 

II. Property of the Mission. 

At Nynee Tal, a Mission-house and QK acres of Land, costing $1,650 

And a Chapel and School-house in process of building, to cost about. 1,750 
With School Furniture and Books, about 75 

Making a total of $3,475 

Of which sum the Missionary Treasury paid 1,350 

Leaving a balance of $2,125 

which was furnished by'generous friends of our Mission in this country during 
the past three months. 



From Boston to Baeeillt. 



475 



We now present tlie summaries of the work of the 
two Annual Conferences, into which the preceding 
feeble commencement has developed, as furnished by 
their respective secretaries from their Minutes. 

Statistical Summary of the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in India foe, the Year ending December, 1884 : 



NuMEBiCAL Statistics. 



Nortli India 
Cout'erence. 



South India 
Conterence, 



Total. 



I. AGENCY OP THE CHURCH. 

Missionaries, No. of male missionaries. 
No. of female missionaries 



Total foreign missionaries 



Native preachers, No. ordained 

Local, regularly employed in the work. 
Exhorters, acting as supplies 



Total natives in charge of congregations. 
English local preachers 



Total native and foreign preachers. 



School teachers, in the day-schools 

In the high schools 

Teachers and officers in Sunday-schools . 

Bible colporteurs, regularly employed 

other helpers, in Theological Seminary, Nor- 
mal School, hospitals, dispensaries, press, etc 



Grand total of workers of all kinds. 
II. Membership and Baptisms. 



Native members, on probation . . . 

In full connection 

Native unordained preachers. 



Total native membership . 

English members, on probation. 
In fuU connection 



Total membership, native and English . . . 
Conversions during the year 1884 



Baptisms during the year 1884, infants . 
" adults.. 



Total baptisms 



Adherents, or native Christians, under pastoral 
care 

Regular congregations (besides bazaar au- 
diences) — 

Average attendants on Sabbath worship 



25 

24 

49 

36 

98 
32 

166 
3 

194 

394 

31 

646 

24 

73 



1,386 



2,285 

2,283 

130 



4,f 



30 



4,813 

491 

288 
34' 

635 

7,186 

139 
6,034 



12 

56 

112 

26 

24 

328 



483 



100 
138 



247 

502 
1,158 



1,907 
238 

163 

28 

191 

500 

60 
3,147 



69 
54 

123 

39 

107 
32 

178 
59 

306 

420 
55 

9T4 
24 

73 

1,869 



2,385 

2,421 

139 

4,945 

432 
1,343 

6,720 

729 

451 
375 

826 



7,686 

199 
9,181 



476 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 



Numerical Statistics. 



III. Schools. 

High schools, No. of schools , 

No. of male pupils 

No. of female pupils 

Total pupils 

Of these, No. of Christian boys 

No. of Christian girls 

Total Christian pupils 

Total non-Christian pupils 

Common schools, Vernacular and Anglo-ver 

nacular. No. of male schools 

No. of female schools , 

Total schools 

No. of male scholars 

No. of female scholars , 

Total scholars, male and female , 

Of these. No. of Christian boys 

No. of Christian girls 

Total Christian scholars 

Total non-Christian day scholars , 

Sunday-schools, No. of schools , 

No. of male scholars 

No. of female scholars , 

Total Sabbath scholars 

Of these, No. of Christian boys 

No. of Christian girls 

Total non-Christian Sabbath scholars 

Orphans, No. of male orphans 

No. of female orphans 

Theological Seminary, No. of students 

Normal School, " " 

IV. The Mission Press. 

No. of languages employed 

Volumes issued during 1884 

Pages " " , 

V. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. 

Missionaries, of whom three are doctors in N. I 
Assistant missionaries, English and Eurasian.. 

School teachers 

Zenana visitors and Bible women, etc 

Other native helpers in Orphanage schools, etc, 

Total agents of the W. F. M. Society 



North India 
Conference. 


South India 
Conference. 


Total. 


6 

679 

207 


3 
522 

467 


9 

1,201 
674 


886 


989 


1,875 


222 
207 


273 

272 


495 

479 


429 

457 


545 
644 


974 
1,101 


256 
149 


17 


273 
149 


405 


17 


423 


8,068 
3,232 


984 
843 


9,052 
4,075 


11,300 


1,827 


13,127 


1,089 
811 


564 

708 


1,653 
1,519 


1,900 
9,400 


1,272 
555 


3,172 
9,955 


4T9 

12,690 

5,379 


54 

2,881 


533 

15,571 

5,379 


18,069 


2,881 


20,950 


2,443 

1,921 

13,705 


.... 


2,443 

1,921 

13,705 


238 

264 

30 

35 


.... 


238 

264 

30 

35 


5 

31,750 

2,961,000 


.... 


5 

31,T50 
2,961,000 


16 
30 
78 
139 
89 


6 

"38 


22 
r 30 

78 
177 

89 


352 


44 


3C6 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 



477 



Numerical and FINA^'CIAL Statistics. 



(W. F. M. SOCIETY— Continued.) 

Schools, Vernacular and Anglo-vernacular 

Zenanas regularly visited 

Zenana women under regular religious in 

struction 

Women in villages under instruction 

Orphan girls (counted under No. Ill) 

Girls in schools "• " 

Total women and girls under instruction. . 

Medical work, native lemale physicians 

Medical Bible women 

Assistants in hospitals and dispensaries. . . 

Medical students under training 

Patients visited in zenanas during 1884 . . . 

'' treated in dispensaries 

" received into hospitals 

Prescriptions issued during the year 

Inmates in Home for Homeless Women. . . 



VI. Financial Statistics for 1884. 

Contributions IromNative churches : 

Collections for Missionary Society 

Woman's Foreign Missionary Society 

Sunday-schools 

Education 

Current expenses, sexton, light, etc 

Support of their own pastors 



Total contributions from native churches 



School fees from native pupils , 

Grants and donations from native municipalities 
in aid of schools, orphanages, hospitals, etc 



Total receipts from native sources in 1884 



2. Contributions from English churches and 
friends in 1884 : 

Collections for the Missionary Society 

Woman's Foreign Missionary Society . 

Bible Society , 

Sunday-schools 

English education and schools 

Current expenses, sexton, light, etc 

Support of their own pastors 

Building and repairing churches and par- 
sonages 

Presiding elders' claims 

Support of native schools, orphanage, 

press, etc 

Grants in Aid from government for schools, 
orphanages, dispensaries, etc 



Total amount from English sources in 1884. 
Add receipts from native churches, etc 



Grand total from all sources in India in 1854. 



North India 
Conference. 


South India 
Conference. 


118 
2,095 




3,195 

1,880 

264 

2,687 

8,027 

3 

6 

4 

3 

429 

16,678 

83 

26,247 

34 




Rupees. 

382 
385 
110 
349 
1,617 
1,882 


Rupees. 


4,725 


3,856 


.... 


1,170 


.... 


9,751 


175 
4,030 
209 
560 
5,152 
1,868 
6,911 


5,632 

'"to 

3,428 
48,087 
30,999 
48,395 


5,315 


19,025 
1,560 


3,971 


2,084 


40,553 





68,744 
9,751 


159,280 


78,495 


.... 



Total. 



118 
2,095 

3,195 

1,880 

264 

2,687 

8,027 

3 

6 

4 

3 

429 

16,678 

83 

26,247 

34 



Rupees. 

382 
385 
110 
349 
1,617 
1,882 

4,725 



3,856 
1,170 
9,751 



5,807 

4,030 

279 

3,968 

53,239 

32,867 

55,306 

24,340 
1,560 

6,055 

40,553 

228,024 
9,751 

237,775 



478 



From Boston to Bareilly. 



Financial Statistics. 



Norlh India 
Couference. 



South India 
ConfereDce, 



Total. 



VII. Property of our Church in India. 

Places of worship, regular churches 

Halls and school-houses where services are 

held 

School-houses, Including common and high — 

Parsonages for foreign missionaries 

" for native pastors 



Estimated value of this property : 

Churches 

Parsonages 

High-school buildings 

The Smith School, Mussooree , 

Common school buildings 

Theological Seminary , 

Endowment of Theological Seminary 

Mission press and its endowment , 

Other endowments, by Gen. Gowan and 

Major Orr 

The orphanages on the plains and the hills 

Hospitals and dispensaries. , 

Sanitarium buildings and furniture , 

Itinerating equipage, tents, etc , 

Other Conference property , 

Endowment of the Native Woman's Paper. 

Total value of mission property in India.. 
Amount of debt remaining on this property. . 



VIII. Extent of Aid Realized in North In 
DiA Conference from 1858 to 1884. 

From 1858 to 1868, as reported 

1869 to 1878, partly estimated 

1879 to 1882, as reported 

1883 to 1884, as reported 

The Thomas endowment for the Theological 

Seminary 

Toward the endowment of the press 

Nawab's house and land for Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society 

Total help raised in India since 1858 . . . 

(The details are found in the published reports 
of the society yearly.) 

Number of towns and cities where Methodism 
has a standing to-day, as centers of work 

Cities, towns, and villages where native Chris- 
tians reside, more than 



37 

95 
42 
30 
39 

Rupees. 

194,200 
180,113 
147,200 

118,000 
40,000 

116,000 
58,000 

25,000 
24,000 
23,000 
16,000 
3,850 
4,200 
50,000 



1,008,563 



227,621 

138.000 

89,89T 

72,217 

40,000 
28,000 

20.000 



615,735 



131 
700 



Rupees. 

302,426 
77,325 
20,000 
20.000 



419,751 
29,025 



120 

49 

3^ 

Rupees. 
496,626 
257,438 
167,200 

20,000 
118,000 

40,000 
116,000 

58,000 

25,000 
24,000 
23,000 
16,000 
3,850 
4.200 
50^000 



1,428,314 
35,113 



227,621 

138,000 

89,897 

72,717 

40,000 
28,000 

20,000 

615,735 



173 

750 



To God be all the glory ! 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 479 

It was certainly due to the worthy English friends 
of our North India Mission, under whose eyes that 
work was founded, and who have sympathized with its 
progress to this hour; and before whom, for twenty- 
five years, have been the daily lives of our faithful 
missionaries and their native assistants and members, 
that this record should be made of their princely 
generosity. I have named one or two of them al- 
ready. These men, in all ranks of life, from the 
British general to the private soldier, and from the 
Viceroy of India to the humblest member of the civil 
service, all alike have shown their interest in this 
great work of God. When to this I add the fact, 
that they were nearly all connected with other Chris- 
tian denominations — not one in twenty of them be- 
ing a Methodist — their generosity has been the more 
disinterested and valuable to us. I feel it to be a 
duty, and a privilege as well, to place on record here 
the obligation of our Church and people to these 
generous benefactors. 

Such has been the munificent aid which those gen- 
erous friends and their government, and also some 
liberal native gentlemen, have extended to the work 
of our Missionary Society in India. The humble of- 
ferings of our own native Christians have helped, 
even though but a little, in swelling this aggregate. 
Here was the encouragement which led the parent 
Board and General Committee to " devise those lib- 
eral tilings" which enabled the Superintendent, as 



480 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

advised by Bishop Simpson, to "lay deep and broad 
foundations for Methodism in India," and which have 
continued since to build up our work on the lines then 
laid out for it. 

The value of the rupee is forty cents. The Sec- 
retary of the South India Conference regrets, in his 
communication, that their statistics are not more def- 
inite in several items asked for. He is my authority, 
as the Minutes do not show it, for the figures of their 
native membership — "being one in eight of the 
whole number" — and he also adds that, of the 238 
conversions during the year, 26 of that number were 
natives. If the figures were furnished as fully as 
those of the J^orth India Conference, there are several 
items that would have made the exhibit still more 
favorable for the South India Conference. But I 
have inserted all the representation that was possible 
with the information available to me. 

In the property exhibit of the Korth India Con- 
ference, that of the Ladies' Society is included, and 
also their girl pupils in the school exhibit, but not 
the zenana and village women under their instruc- 
tion. The report on page 477 gives the full exhibit 
of their work. I ought, also, to add that in the North 
India Conference there are three of the male mission- 
aries who are doctors, and there are also three doctors 
among the native preachers — Harkua Wilson, Amos 
Miller, and Edward Thomson. The former are 
doing good service at Bareilly, Lucknow, and Agra. 



Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 481 

The native physicians are in the Kumaon District, 
and the following is the aggregate of their medical 
services for the year past in the three stations occu- 
pied by them : 

Patients treated, Male 7,804 

" " Female 2,730 

" " Children 1,966 

Total cases 12,500 

There were besides 130 surgical operations, of which 
110 were minor and 20 major. It should also be ob- 
served that, in the items of native liberality (beyond 
the 1,882 rupees toward the support of their own pas- 
tors), tliere was, as usual, some help from the mission 
families in those collections — for the Missionary So- 
ciety, current expenses, the native auxiliaries of the 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, etc. But, after 
deducting this help, most of the contributions were 
from the natives themselves, and the result shows 
that the yearly giving is already up to 4,000 rupees 
from our native membership. 

It should also be stated that the Minutes of the 
North India Conference show an aggregate of 99 
" unpaid voluntary workers : " such as local preachers 
not regularly employed in the work, native preachers' 
wives acting as Bible women, etc. ; adding to these 
most of the 646 Sunday-school officers and teachers, 
that Conference has a band of over 700 helpers in 
their force, whose services are rendered without re- 
ceiving any earthly compensation for them. 
Il 



482 From Boston to Baeeilly. 

While profoundly grateful to God and liis serv- 
ants for this Numerical and Financial Exhibit of 
our Missions at the close of the first quarter-centurj 
of their existence, we realize that all this is but 
means to the ends we aim at — the mere scaffolding 
of the building which we are erecting. Unencum- 
bered property, munificent financial aid, and nu- 
merical prosperity are good and necessary in their 
way ; but they might all appear without a living ex- 
perience of salvation, like a beautiful body without an 
animating soul. The glory of a Christian mission is 
in the amount of its spiritual life, and that cannot be 
tabulated; but it can be ''felt and seen" and illus- 
trated in the lovely "fruits of grace." This, after 
all, was what drew forth our deepest gratitude as we 
went from station to station in our mission. We 
realized that our native membership had a Christian 
experience ; that they were able to live their religion, 
and to die well, when they came to die. And, when 
to this we found added a converted native ministry, 
called by the Holy Spirit to the work, we felt that 
the highest gifts of God had been bestowed upon our 
mission, and that our hearts need feel no solicitude in 
regard to its permanence, for here were the essential 
and divine elements of its future life and usefulness. 

What that work is capable of, in meeting and over- 
throwing this colossal and organized heathenism, was 
gloriously illustrated in March, 1885, at Ajudhiya, 
where, amid the din and madness of a preposterous 



Fkom Boston to Bakeilly. 483 

idolatry, in whicli fifty or sixty thousand people had 
assembled, according to custom, to worship Hanuman, 
the monkey -god, two of our native ministers, Am- 
bica Charn Paul and Chimman Lai, with one or two 
helpers — men full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, 
were honored of God during those three days to ac- 
complish for him the most glorious work yet known 
in that land. A brief description of it, in two letters 
from Kev. B. H. Badley, will lead my readers to bow 
their heads, as I do mine, before the display of this 
wonderful grace of God. The happy missionary 
writes : 

"It is safe to say that at no mela^ in ^orth India 
at least, has there been such a manifestation of the 
saving power of Christ as at Ajudhiya this week. 
The great ' Ram Naomi ' mela^ held in this sacred 
city, the birthplace of Ram Chandra, as the Hindus 
declare, was largely attended ; several of our native 
preachers from Lucknow, Rev. Chimman Lai, Philip 
Andrew, and a colporteur, together with Rev. A. C. 
Paul, of Barabanki, went to Ajudhiya last Monday. 
On Tuesday morning, the 24:th, before beginning the 
day's work, the brethren engaged in prayer in their 
tent. A poor leper, a Brahmin, heard and drew near 
the tent : some by-standers said jestingly to the breth- 
ren, ^ Here is a hopeful case for yon ; make this man 
a Christian.' The brethren had the man come into 
the tent, and one of them began praying: at once 
the power of God was manifested, the leper began to 



484 Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 

pray in the name of Jesus, and with tears streaming 
down his face he soon confessed Christ had heard and 
saved him. He cast away J lis janeu (sacred thread)? 
gave his necklace of praying beads to the brethren, 
and with a joyful heart started out to tell the story. 
He had made many pilgrimages to Budrinath, Be- 
nares, and elsewhere, seeking rest, but all in vain, and 
now at last had found salvation. During his baptism a 
jpundit and his disciple came up, and these, too, were 
convinced of sin and began praying; others joined 
the company and the tent was surrounded with in- 
quirers. These were all seated, men, women, and 
children, and the brethren began explaining the 
Gospel message : the hearts of the people were 
touched, and scores were at once baptized, men, women, 
and children, family after family. All were baptized 
with their old names, except the leper, who went 
about declaring that he had found the true gydn 
(knowledge) and was happy in Christ ; he was given 
the name ' Gyan Masih, (one who knows Christ) ; 
a woman who was baptized showed such earnestness 
in inviting the people to come to Christ that she 
was named ' Masih Dasi ' (handmaiden of Christ). 
The preachers taught their new converts several Hindi 
hymns, and these were sung with much spirit, while 
in the very shadow of the famous temple ' Hanu- 
man Garhi' (Hanuman's Fort) scores were joyously 
shouting ' Yictory to the Lord Jesus Christ ! ' ( Jai 
Prabhu Tisu !) The police looked on in amazement. 



Feom BosToi^r to Baeeilly. 485 

There was no confusion or diiSciiltj. After preach- 
in a- in the mela the brethren invited those who desired 
to become Christians to come to the tent, and numbers 
followed at once, and after being instructed and con- 
fessing Christ were baptized. 

" The first day (Tuesday) 96 were baptized ; the 
second (Wednesday, the great day of the mUa)^ 102 ; 
and the third (Thursday), 50 ; in all, 248. The names 
of all were carefully written. About a score live in 
Ajudhiya, and will form the nucleus of a Methodist 
Church there ; others live in the surrounding villages ; 
but most of them live in the ISTorth-west Provinces, 
beyond the Ganges. All were directed to make their 
way at once to the nearest missionary or Christian 
village and report themselves as brethren. 

" It is very significant that out of this large num- 
ber of converts the majority were Brahmins ; nearly 
one third were women ; one third were children ; 
and entire families were baptized. 

" No American missionaries were present. The 
two native ordained preachers baptized the converts. 
They and their helpers were all greatly blessed, and 
say that the place was filled with the presence of God. 
They had gone with prayer and were prepared for the 
great work. They are among the best native preachers 
in the !N"orth India Conference, while Brother Chim- 
man Lai is a beautiful singer, as well as a poet and 
musician. He has written a number of hymns which 
are in use among us, and is constantly adding to the 



486 From Boston to Bakeillt. 

•number. He is our Conference Sankey, a most suc- 
cessful worker, greatly blessed of God. On tins oc- 
casion the people came in scores and listened to the 
singing, joining in the choruses as soon as they 
learned them. As great results will attend the sing- 
ing of the Gospel in India as have in other lands, and 
Methodism has a great work here in preparing hymns 
and popularizing them — displacing the licentious 
songs which, wedded to beautiful tunes, are sung far 
and wide. With Brother Chimman Lai to prepare 
original hymns, and Brother Isaac Fieldbrave to trans- 
late Western hymns, and a press to publish them in 
the language spoken by seventy -five millions of these 
people, we are ready for the great opportunities which 
are opening before us. 

" It is worth remarking that in January last a 
native preacher in an adjoining zillah wrote Dr. 
Johnson, presiding elder of the district, asking that 
he might be appointed to Ajudhiya, as he felt in his 
heart that there would be a great work there. This 
desire was entirely spontaneous, as nothing had been 
said to the man regarding a preacher being sent to 
Ajudhiya. 

" The results of this pentecostal outpouring cannot 
be too highly estimated. The city was shaken, and 
the people were amazed as they saw the scores of 
their own idolatrous countrymen flocking to the 
standard of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the railway, 
when the mela closed and the people were departing, 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 487 

it was a common topic of conversation, and the 248- 
were multijDlied to a ' thousand.' 

" The list of their names, with their ages written, is 
before me as I write ; and as I glance down the long 
list I cannot keep from saying for every name, for 
every man, woman, boy, and girl : ' Praise God ! 
Praise God!' Several were old men, some were 
men of good position. These all promised, on reach- 
ing their homes, scattered here and there throughout 
the provinces, to report to the nearest missionaries or 
native Christians. We shall do our utmost to follow 
them, and daily pray that they may be graciously kept 
and divinely shepherded. We are praying that this 
may be but the beginning of a great spiritual harvest 
in J^ortli India. God is with us, and our hearts are 
filled with singing. Pray that the hundreds may 
grow into thousands this year." 

These " pentecostal days at Ajudhiya" are astonish- 
ing many in India, who have loiig labored and waited 
for the kingdom of God. It is coming " with power." 
All the facts forbid the idea of there being insincerity 
or superficiality in this reception of mercy by these 
people, or in its free and cordial offer by these honored 
native ministers. The cause and effects were manifest- 
ly similar to those displayed in the case of Philip and 
the stranger Eunuch, St. Paul and the Philippian 
jailer, Cornelius and his friends, and others mentioned 
in Holy Writ. 'No higher evidence of human sin- 
ceritv need be looked for than when a lordly Brah- 



488 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

min consents to bend in penitential humility at tlie 
feet of a man as destitute of caste as is Chimman 
Lai, and entreats liim to pour from his hand upon 
that proud head the water which forever breaks this 
Brahmin's caste. When, in addition, this " aristocrat 
by creation," voluntarily and promptly takes off from 
his breast the emblem and outward sign of his nobility, 
and hands it over, with his string of praying beads, to 
the administrator of the holy rite, he has done all that 
man can do in India to prove his earnestness and 
honesty. But on this occasion there were 127 of these 
Brahmins who did all this, and that, too, in public and 
before thousands of their own people, who had hith- 
erto honored them as the clergy caste, and nobility of 
their country ! Yes, indeed, such men must be sin- 
cere ! There was no earthly motive that could mingle 
w^itli that scene. It was pure spiritual conviction and 
strong desire for salvation in Christ, and they found 
what they so promptly and earnestly sought, and 
" went on their way rejoicing " to their homes, where 
they are now, no doubt, telling their friends what 
they obtained by simple faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The Church to whom God "gives this in- 
crease " has a heavy responsibility to follow up her 
own success, and to see to it that these people are 
closely looked after, and drawn into intimate rela- 
tions with the means of grace, and " taught the way 
of God more perfectly." 

This divine manifestation has added additional and 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 489 

startling evidence of the spiritual susceptibility of the 
natives of India. They, indeed, have hearts, and 
hearts that can yield promptly to the gracious influ- 
ences of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps hitherto we have 
been appealing too exclusively to their intellects and 
too little to their spiritual natures ; not realizing how 
readily these latter might yield to Christian sympa- 
tliy and personal appeal. Commenting upon the re- 
sults, the editor of the Indian Witness gives ex- 
pression to sentiments which intimate '' the gift of 
power" that is coming upon our missionaries, and the 
glad results which we may henceforth look for in 
that land. His words may apply at home as well as 
in India. He says : 

" There is here a great lesson for those who would 
win souls for Christ. It is unnecessary to spend in- 
genuity, and still less time, in preparatory courses. 
Whatever intellectual difficulties an intelligent Hindu 
feels in the way of accepting Christianity, there is in 
his mind, along with his religious speculation, but 
distinct from it, a longing for spiritaal rest, and if 
that be clearly offered to him in the name of Christ, 
he may clutch at it and wait for the solution of his 
ionbts at another time. This was plainly shown by 
Mr. Knowles, in his letter published recently in the 
Indian Witness, and he had good reason to know 
whereof he wrote. Moreover, he confessed freely 
that his faith had not always been equal to that man- 
ner of work. When his faith was weaker, his aim 



490 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

was poorer. The fact to be remembered is, that the 
Holy Ghost, whose special office it is to convict the 
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to 
come, has usually been at work upon men's consciences 
before they hear the Gospel: so that the message of 
salvation falls upon ears on the alert for something of 
the kind. 

" The chief point in preaching is to deliver the mes- 
sage in full faith that it is divinely adapted to the 
cases in hand and will be accepted. The importance 
of this cannot be overestimated. If there be uncer- 
tainty in the preacher's mind as to the present efficacy 
of the salvation he offers, that uncertainty will in- 
evitably betray itself in his spirit, and his hearers will 
not put more faith in his message than he has in it 
himself. This faith is the gift of God. There is 
something out of order in a messenger of Christ who 
does his errand with misgivings about the result. He 
is doubtless sincere, but his faith is defective. And 
it is often a consciousness of this uncertain grasp of 
the truth that makes preachers content to do their 
part in keeping the gospel machinery going, or at 
most, willing to hope that a future day will bring a 
wave of success upon their efforts." 

Surely the Church at home, which originated this 
work, must now begin to feel her heart deeply touched 
with the value which she must henceforth attach to 
this enterprise, in view of the grace and the honor 
which God is putting upon it. She can now go to 



Feom Boston to Bareilly. 491 

her missions to attest her theology, and gather inspi- 
ration from them even for her own home work. 
Blessing others she will herself be blessed. 

There is another very important result that will 
arise out of this manifestation of grace which I would 
like to draw attention to before closing the subject. 
And I find the point so well presented by Dr. Tho- 
burn, that I will borrow a few sentences from his 
article. Commenting upon this " ^ew Missionary 
Era " which has dawned upon the l^orth India Con- 
ference, he says : 

" For some years past we have steadily maintained 
the view that the cause of Christian missions in India 
was about to enter upon a new era. Much had been 
done in the past, but the work had, for the most part, 
been carried on within narrow lines. The massive 
force of Hinduism had never been broken, and con- 
verts from Islam had been gathered in by twos and 
threes, but never in such numbers as to break the 
Mohammedan ranks at any one point. The only ex- 
ception to this remark, we believe, was in Bengal, 
where some years ago a large community of Moham- 
medans embraced the Christian faith ; but these peo- 
ple were hardly orthodox Mohammedans, and would 
not have been accepted as such in North India. The 
Brahmin lines, however, had never been broken. 
Here and there one, two, or three converts had been 
gathered in from the Brahmin and higher castes, but 
we think we are correct — and we hope to be put 



492 Feom Boston^ to Bareilly. 

right if mistaken — in saying that never in the his- 
tory of missions in India has any considerable num- 
ber of Brahmins been baptized in a body. The 
unconditional acceptance of Christianity on a New- 
Testament basis has as yet been confined to isolated 
converts from the higher castes. 

"The recent baptisms at the Ajudhiya mela put a 
new phase upon this peculiar feature of mission w^ork 
in India. In all two hundred and forty-eight persons 
were baptized, ' the majority of whom were Brah- 
mins.' The significance of this statement can hardly 
be overestimated. One man's soul is, of course, 
worth no more than another's, and a Brahmin stands 
no higher in God's sight than a sweeper ; but tlie 
Brahmins have been hedged about in such a way that 
it has seemed next to impossible to reach them ; and 
it is a cause of rejoicing that access to them at last 
seems to have been gained, and that their hearts are 
as open to receive the word of life as the hearts of 
the people of lower castes. 

" We cannot believe that this extraordinary move- 
ment in the Ajudhiya "iuela will end with the disper- 
sion of the people who attended the fair. A hundred 
thousand busy tongues will tell the story over and 
over again, and by this time it is known to ten mill- 
ions of people in IS^orth India that Brahmins and 
other high-caste people are accepting Christianity 
freely. The effect of this wall be to break the spell 
which has so long held the mass of the people. It is 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 493 

popularly believed that Cliristianity is only adapted 
to low-caste people, and that Brahmins are clad in an 
armor of social and religious sanctity which makes 
them invulnerable against the Christian preacher. It 
avails little to point to one or two Brahmin converts 
among the Christian preachers. The fact that they 
are so few in number seems only to confirm the people 
in their notion of the general rale, and they rest qui- 
etly in the conviction that a religion which cannot 
reach the Brahmins must be inferior to that which the 
Brahmins profess. A few more occurrences like this, 
and this notion will be dispelled forever. Tlie peo- 
23le will see, and quickly reahze, that a power greater 
than Brahminism is at w^ork in their midst, and how- 
ever reluctant they may be to accept the Christian 
religion, they will begin to regard it with a respect, 
a reverence, which they have never known before." 

At another mela since held, at Mahmad Gunge, 
twenty-five more persons of the same classes w^ere 
baptized ; and there are other recent instances which 
I might quote, so that already it would seem a 
larger number have been added to the Church tliere 
within four months since Conference than have been 
added in any whole year in the history of the mis- 
sion. They are evidently entering upon times of 
great power — "years of the right hand of the Most 
High ;" and it behooves our Church now to re-enforce 
her work, and, pushing the battle to the very gate, 
capture India for Christ as fast as she possibly can. 



4:94: From Boston to Baeeilly. 

What an evidence of tliis increasing power was tlie 
dedication, in the fall of 1885, of onr new church in 
the city of Cawnpore ! Situated in the center of 
the city, this beautiful church — the largest and most 
complete native church in ]^orth India — was dedi- 
cated to the worship of God amid circumstances of 
the most encouraging character. Here, where the 
blood of several hundred Christian people was shed 
amid scenes of unparalleled cruelty by the ^ana Sa- 
hib, in 1857, Methodism has erected a Christian 
church that is a joy to look at ; complete in all re- 
spects, with its tower and bell and clock, and school 
building attached. The people of the city manifested 
a lively interest in the enterprise, and even a few 
Hindus offered to subscribe toward its erection. On 
the day of its dedication the edifice was crowded to 
its utmost capacity, about twelve hundred persons 
being present. Such was the interest which the 
event excited that several zenana ladies came in their 
palankeens to attend the service, a part of the gallery 
having been curtained off for their special use, where 
they could see and hear without being themselves 
seen ! And this in Cawnpore, where those beloved 
Presbyterian brethren and sisters, and hundreds of 
others with them, endured the most cruel martyrdom 
for the Lord Jesus known since the days of I^ero and 
Caligula ! Yes, even here, " the blood of the martyrs 
is the seed of the Church ! " But it is the glorious 
future that is thus intimated, of which I think, as I 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 495 

read with surprise and joj of the present events at 
Ajudhija and Cawnpore. This is only the dawn ; bnt 
what a day it is ushering in for poor India, when her 
" sun shall no more go down ; neither shall " her 
" moon withdraw itself : for the Lord shall be " her 
"everlasting light, and the days of" her "mourning 
shall be ended ! " 

Her candid and intelligent visitors all alike recog- 
nize in the present success the intimations of this 
coming glory. The last, and one of the most compe- 
tent of these visitors, expressed his delight and antici- 
pations at the opening session of the North India 
Conference in Bareilly, January T, 1885. From a ver- 
hatim report by one of the missionaries of Bishop 
Hurst's address on that occasion, I take the following 
portion. The Bishop said : 

" I come to you, dear brethren, bringing the salu- 
tations of the Church at home. When doubtful 
missionary fields are spoken of at home we think of 
various countries, but never of India. The work here 
is, beyond a doubt, successful. I have now been in 
India two months, examining the work of our Church. 
I think it would take more than two years to see it 
all and see it well. I wish I could be here a year — 
and that would be too short a time to satisfy my own 
wishes. 

" I am pleased with all I have seen of India Meth- 
odism. The work is infinitely beyond what I expected 
to find. I was not uninformed ; I have read various 



496 Fkom Boston to Baeeillt. 

books on India, as well as all that has appeared in the 
public prints, and your letters in our various Advo- 
cates ; but I was not prepared for what I see. I find 
a surprise every hour. Some things I am amazed at : 

" 1. Your choice of church property. Every -where 
you have bought wisely, beautifully, and it is very 
evident that you have bought to stay. Your build- 
ings are well located ; I am not surprised that it is so 
here in Bareilly where we have met ; we have this 
beautiful church ; just yonder the Remington Hall, 
the home of your theological seminary ; across the 
way your Girls' Orpjianage. So it is in other cities. 

" 2. Your schools are prospering. In New En- 
gland the spring sun calls out the life and beauty of 
the vegetable world — the sturdy oak, the budding, 
leafing tree, the beautiful rose — all forms of life are 
developed by the genial sun ; so here, you have not 
only churches, but schools for boys and for girls ; you 
have Orphanages as well, and thus the light of the 
Gospel brings life and development in many varied 
ways. 

" 3. Your publishing interests are well cared for 
and full of promise. This gives great reason for re- 
joicing. I recognize this as a very important depart- 
ment. Here, as elsewhere, our Church has not been 
able to utilize the books by others, and you have had 
to create your own literature, as you will have to do 
in the future. 

" We have met to-day for our Conference eeesion 



From. Boston to Baeeilly. 497 

— brought, many of us, thousands of miles, in peace 
and safety to this place. Blessed be God for his 
abounding mercies ! The eyes of the whole Church 
are upon you ; your names are familiar in America. 
In the company before me are those who have been 
away from you for a time, now with you again, glau 
to be here. I have read about the Corsican, how the 
fragrance of the flowers of his native land so gets 
into his nature that wherever he goes this fragrance 
tells his presence and his nationality ; so it seems to 
me it is with India missionaries at home on furlough ; 
they do not call America home ; their thoughts go 
back to this distant land ; they are restless, and are 
never at home until they land in India. It is this 
perfect enthusiasm in your work which makes you 
successful. 

" This work of yours is a glorious one. People all 
about you have sprung into beautiful lives through 
your efforts, and many who are in heaven to-day are 
the fruit of your labor. 'No mission has in fuller 
measure the confidence of the Church than yours. 

" We shall have a grand future in India. You 

have many forms of error to meet and overcome. I 

am amazed at the bravery of soul with which you are 

attacking these. If you seek for heroism, you do not 

need to go yonder to the Lucknow Residency, where 

Ilavelock fought and Lawrence fell ; you will find it 

izi the men and women who to day are battling against 

error in the many mission fields of India. You have 
32 



498 Fkom Boston to Bareilly. 

gone to work to meet the questions of to-day witli 
great faith and courage. We believe the future will 
be grander even than the past. 

" The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society has 
won great laurels in India, as elsewhere. With its 
* first decade ' we are all familiar ; the second decade 
will be brighter still. I am glad to see so many of 
the workers of this Society here to-day — so many fresh 
from America, earnest, consecrated ladies, who have 
crossed three seas and one ocean to take their places 
in your midst. May God bless them ; and may his 
richest blessings rest upon the noble women at home, 
whose helping hands reach across these seas to touch 
and save the heathen women of India ! " 

Nothing more need be added to this to show the 
Church the value and opening prospects of her pre- 
cious work in that wonderful land save the Bishop's 
own words, written in Europe on his return from In- 
dia, showing the full result of his reflections upon 
what he had witnessed there. It was written to the 
Missionary Secretaries and the Board, and was by 
them printed in a circular and sent out to the Church. 
Bishop Hurst says : " If from all the lands where our 
people are now singing centennial psalms our Church 
were suddenly blotted out, there is aggressive force 
in India Methodism alone to sail to all the continents 
and plant it over again." 

This is enough. No more appreciation need be de- 
sired. The climax was reached when tliese words 



From Boston to Baeeilly. 499 

were written. As the humble founder of the North 
India Mission, I pause here to recognize gratefully the 
infinite mercy of God that has been over me and my 
work from its inception to this glad hour. I may 
now be indulged, at this point, with a few candid and 
grateful reminiscences regarding my own relation to 
that work, without any liability, I hope, of being 
misunderstood. 

In doing this I may, perhaps, seem, in the apostle's 
sense, to " speak as a fool," but surely I may be borne 
with in doing so. This glorious birth of spiritual 
good was not accomplished without a travail of soul 
corresponding to its importance and value, and in 
this my own heart has had its prominent share. I 
appreciate the self-forgetfulness in the quotation, 

" 'Tis magnanimity to liide the wound ; " 

and who that was heroic would do otherwise on the 
field of battle ? But the conflict is over, and, amid 
the joy of the victory which we now experience, 
reminiscences to the honor of supporting grace may 
be appropriate. So St. Paul thought when he enu- 
merated his own grand endurances, and declared that 
he wore his scars as badges of sacred honor, and glo- 
ried in his sufferings for the Lord Jesus Christ. It is 
well that we do not know in advance the toil and tri- 
als which we have to meet in our path of duty. God 
wisely hides from our eyes what might discourage, and 
calls us to walk by faith, leaning on him alone for 



500 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

support and guidance. What a list of discourage- 
ments might have been put into our hands, bj some 
foreseeing power, on the day when we stepped on 
board that steam-ship, in Boston harbor, in 1856 ! 
Our hearts were yearning for the two dear boys we 
had then to leave behind ; and here that list might 
have begun its discouraging enumeration, and said to 
us : " That oldest boy you are never to see again, for 
he will die in your absence ; two more of your pre- 
cious ones you will leave behind in India when your 
work is done, and you will also have to bury the 
fourth one in his young manhood in a Mexican cem- 
etery, so that their graves will be twelve thousand 
miles asunder ! You will go straight wdth your dear 
ones almost into the jaws of death, and have to pass 
through the greatest emergency civilization has ever 
known on the Eastern hemisphere. For fifteen months 
you will be exposed " in peril among the heathen and 
in the wilderness," standing in jeopardy every hour, 
and will be given up as dead. When you come forth 
from that circle of fire, keen sufferings will await you. 
The Asiatic cholera and the sun-stroke, o]3hthalmia 
and other ailments, will in succession bring you again 
into the very presence of death, and almost close 
your career. Then, when emerging from these, your 
hardest toil and heaviest responsibilities will be only 
beginning, in laying out, developing, and providing 
for the extensive work of God which you are expected 
to found and superintend in that land. I^early one 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 501 

hundred agents in the field will have to be helped and 
satisfied in their work ; and while carrying this care 
and toil those who sent you will sometimes seem 
fail you, so that you will be criticized and even 
checked, because you appear to them to be going too 
fast, or to have taken too extensive a field to occupy, 
and for requiring so large a portion of the Church's 
funds for its cultivation. Your soul will mourn when 
you find you cannot please every one concerned — all 
in the field and all at home — till your nights become 
sleepless, and head and heart will ache because you 
will fear that your extensive plans of work are not 
understood or adequately appreciated. The keenest of 
these heart-aches will be w^hen the limited liberality 
of the Church leads the authorities at home to restrain 
your action and curtail your work in the presence of 
millions of dying men whom your soul will yearn to 
save ! " 

This is only a part of what might be enumerated, 
and is all sober truth, without a word of exaggeration. 
Only God himself knows the solicitude which this 
one poor, weak heart, held to such responsibility, car- 
ried for this blessed cause ; while back of it all lay the 
consideration that I was only " a stranger and foreign- 
er," doing this work for my adopted Church and 
country, and realizing that it became me modestly to 
avoid, lest I should be misunderstood, the self-assertion 
which a native American might suitably assume under 
such responsibilities. I say not this because of any 



502 Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 

reason given me to doubt their consideration for me 
and the office I held under these circumstances. No, 
indeed ; my dear brethren in the field were consider- 
ate, and even magnanimous toward me, and these 
pages contain abundant proof that I was fully aware 
of it, and loved them for their honorable bearing to- 
ward me from first to last — from 1858 to 1884. 

My entire reference is known to God alone, Avho 
saw my solicitude and how profoundly I respected the 
authorities who had commissioned me, as well as my 
earnest desire to bear conscientiously the responsibil- 
ities which they had laid upon me. But I never for- 
got that in all this I was not serving man, but God, 
and that to him I should have to answer in the judg- 
ment day for the appreciation and use of the great op- 
portunity. I felt then — and feel to-day more fully — 
that he had called me to this great work, and would 
go with me to it, and be with me in it, removing the 
impediments from my path and sustaining me till that 
work was done. The farther I went in that line of 
duty the more convinced I became of the divine guid- 
ance and purpose. When I reached the Gangetic 
Yalley, and saw that preventing power removed, God 
seemed to say to me, " I have set before thee an open 
door, and no man can shut it." That door was, in- 
deed, " wide and effectual," and my plans had to con- 
form themselves to the circumstances of that magnifi- 
cent valley and its twenty millions of souls. I realized 
strongly that the Almighty knew the ability, present 



Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. 503 

and prosj^ective, of the ChurcL. which I represented, 
and that in calling her to India (where one sixth of 
our race was to be aifected by her presence) he evi- 
dently did not intend that she should be represented 
there by a little pany mission that in a hundred years 
of labor could not reach the heart of India and toucli 
it for Christ. 

The Board, the General Committee, and even the 
Corresponding Secretary might look serious, and even 
hesitate about assuming such an obligation as this was 
to be — for faith then was weaker and less intelligent 
than it is to-day. But God was pressing us up to the 
duty which, we had to fulfill for him. So, all parties 
— the superintendent included — were alike carried 
beyond themselves, and their first small plans, out 
into purposes and opportunities that were worthy of 
the great work to which " the Lord of the harvest " 
was calling them. What wonderful reading now is 
that voluminous correspondence upon this subject. 
How I was cautioned and instructed — sometimes al- 
most censured. But the help I developed from those 
generous English friends — who caught the enthusiasm 
of our extensive plans — and my own pleadings, encour- 
aged the Corresponding Secretary and the Board, so 
that they kindly (though often reluctantly) allowed 
me to have my own way. Meanwhile the Church, 
seeing what was being done, responded with increas- 
ing liberality for her share, and the finances rose, year 
by year, to the height required, and good Dr. Durbin 



504 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

stood by me to the last. His hopes were fulfilled, and 
one of the greatest joys of his life was realized when 
the mission to India rose to the dignity of an Annual 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church ! 

What else could I do than what I did ? There be- 
fore me lay a sight which the Secretary and the 
Church could only hear of^ — the plenteous harvest of 
unsaved humanity, 20,000,000 in number, within our 
own field ; while " the Lord of the harvest " was 
calling for " more laborers," and Bishop Simpson's 
words were ringing in my memory, '' Brother Butler, 
lay deep and broad foundations for Methodism in In- 
dia ! " O, I thank God my faith and courage did not 
fail me ; not for a moment, even amid the hot fires 
of 1857, or when Dr. Durbin (awe-struck with tlie 
carnage) wrote and gave me full leave to reconsider 
the field I had chosen, and change it for another, if, 
on reflection, I thought I had selected one too hard to 
be a safe position for doing mission work. I am equal- 
ly grateful that I did not flinch under the pressure of 
the timid counsels and opinions of some who thought 
I should do better by adopting their limited views of 
the work and how it was to be laid out. 

]^o ; my Letter of Instructions defined my respon- 
sibility, and conceded to me a large discretion in 
meeting the great opportunity for our Church. God 
was with me every hour, and my trust in his guidance 
was simple, but immeasurable ; so I stood up to the 
duty laid upon me, and had neither fear nor doubt. 



From Boston to Bakeilly. 505 

"Who now regrets that I took counsel of mj faith and 
assumed the full responsibility of my commission, 
throwing upon my Church the onus of cultivating 
that grand field which I had selected for her, honor- 
ing her in doing so ? I do not ; but shall go down to 
the grave grateful that to me was given the opportu- 
nity of committing her to its cultivation. I^or does 
any of my brethren amid our extending work in India, 
where they rejoice in the field which they occupy, 
and in the hopeful race whom they are evangeliz- 
ing. ISTor does Dr. Durbin in heaven, nor our living 
Church to-day, nor the adorable Head of the Church 
himself. Our denomination is surely richer for what 
she has done for India, and is all the better prepared 
to accomplish the work to which our fathers' God is 
leading her onward. The help of a Church of such 
resources means much to him in the realization of his 
promise to his Son : "I shall give thee the heathen 
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for thy possession." 

So here I stand, and take this look over all the 
way wliKjh this book records, and the path along 
which God has led us. Whatever it may have in- 
volved to us of solicitude, or bereavement, or trial, I 
^ee now that all was for the best. I would not change 
a single fact, nor ask exemption from any pain of 
mind or body which the duty involved. The close 
of the quarter-century has explained and glorified it 
all ; and now. beyond former experience, I know the 



506 From. Boston to Bareilly. 

outcome in which what we call mysterious providen- 
ces can terminate, and the meaning of the lines : 

" Who shall so forecast the years, 
And find in loss a gain to match, 
Or reach a hand through time to catch 

The far-off interest of tears ? " 

Gladly would I go through it all again, and far 
more, if God so willed, to accomplish the same 
results, even with full knowledge in advance of what 
it would cost the heart in the way of endurance. 
The discipline and sorrow which duty often involves 
work out the highest results to those who are exer- 
cised thereby. The personal benefits acquired by 
sanctified trial, has led multitudes of God's faithful 
ones to know forever : 

" Amid my list of blessings infinite 

Stands this the foremost, that my heart has bled ; 

For all I thank thee, most for the severe." 

Our Saviour was made perfect by suffering, and we 
may be, and find at last our life-work all the dearer 
to us for every care and toil that it cost us here 
below. 

Such were the reflections that filled my heart as 
I crossed the Ganges in 1883, and recalled the 
emotions which moved my soul at the same crossing 
in December, 1856. I was then a stranger, without 
a welcome, and all was dark and forbidding. But 
here I was joyously reminded of the patriarch's glad 



Feom Boston to Bakeilly. 507 

reflection : '* With my staff I crossed over this Jor- 
dan, and now I am become two bands ! " The long 
years of toil and anxiety had been crowned, and thou- 
sands of grateful and loving Christian hearts in that 
valley were now waiting to welcome us ! O, wonder- 
ful change ! I remembered Dr. Beid's words at the 
farewell meeting in ISTew York, the night before 
we sailed on this voyage, and realized how true to 
the sentiments of my heart they were : *' I would 
rather found a mission than found an empire." What 
hallowed compensation, for any toil and sacrifice, have 
we received ! So, 

" After all my wanderings through this world of care, 
And all my griefs, and God has given me my share," 

I bless him that T have lived to see this day, and 
to look upon these glad results ! My heart bowed 
before him in adoration as I there recalled Dr. Dur- 
bin's words, written to strengthen me, in April, 1856, 
when he sympathized with our lonely and unsus- 
tained position, and said : " Be of good courage, and 
let those yet to come say, ' William Butler founded 
this mission.' " Amen ! and, again, to God be all the 
glory ! 

Poor India ! A few more words about her before 
I terminate this book. She is to-day the most awful 
example on earth of the damnable nature of idolatry. 
There is a land which is one of the garden spots of 
this globe ; a land with a history rum^ing hack for 



508 From. Boston to Baeeillt. 

four thousand years, having boundless wealth, and a 
sixth of the world's population within her borders. 
She was in her splendor when our forefathers were 
lialf-naked savages in English forests. Her scholars 
were then writing her great epics, and calculating 
eclipses. Hundreds of 3^ears before the Incarnation 
the fame of her greatness had reached the court of 
Solomon, and he borrowed some of her superfluities 
to increase the "glory" of his capital. But she has 
taken a long departure from the religious simplicity 
of those times, and is to-day the head and highest 
example of the world's idolatry. In the greatness of 
her guilt and folly she lias wandered so far from the 
original righteousness of a belief in the unity of 
God, that she has multiplied her deities until her 
" learned Pundits " are said to declare that their Pan- 
thepn contains 330,000,000 of them ! Every one of 
these she has invented. The Lord rebuked Israel be- 
cause their gods had become at least as numerous as 
their cities. What, then, must he, the jealous God, 
" who will not give his glory to another, or his praise 
to graven images," think of India, a country which, 
according to this preposterous enumeration, has a 
god and a half for every Hindu in the land ! The 
recent census shows that her shrines are served by 
601,164 heathen priests. So that there is a Brahmin 
priest for every three hundred and thirty persons of 
that population ! Every god she has added, and 
every additional pricpt she accepted, has deepened 



From Boston to Bareilly. 509 

her debasement, and taken her farther awav from 
truth and righteousness. Modern Hinduism is far 
more degrading than was the ancient form. The old 
gods of the Yedic times (who have been forsaken for 
the modern monstrosities) had some respectability of 
character about them, but the deities of to-day have 
sunk the nation so low that it was '' perishing in its 
own corruption " when the Gospel of Christ entered 
the land, and began, by missionary teaching and 
Christian law, to arrest the dreadful downward tend- 
ency. 

The record is atrocious. Idolatry was fully justify- 
ing, by its matchless cruelty, the Lord Jehovah's de- 
nunciation of it. For under the sanction of gods and 
goddesses, who were deiiied Thugs, and delighted in 
human blood, even helpless female infancy was re- 
morsely sacrificed, and tens of thousands of beautiful 
women were immolated in their suttees in honor of 
these " divine " monsters. The clergy of India — its 
Brahmin priesthood — instead of protesting, gave the 
system their fullest sanction, urging on the devilish 
crimes, and putting the golden gains derived from 
them into their himgry purses. 

In this deep departure from truth and holiness the 
men and the women of India are more degraded than 
any other heathen by the popular objects of their 
adoration, for they have sunk so low that they are 
groveling before idols as preposterous as a monkey- 
god, and worshiping symbols of sensuality which de- 



510 Feom Boston to Baeeilly. 

cency forbids to be named. Poor, deluded, misguided 
souls ! how much they need our Christian pity and help 
to aid them, so " that they may recover themselves 
out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by 
him at his will." 

Perhaps no human mind this side of eternity can 
form an adequate conception of \k\& fearful guilt and 
debasing effects of the sin of idolatry. In its mental 
and material manifestations it is the crime of crimes 
— the prolific parent of selfishness, licentiousness, and 
denial of God. J^o wonder the Lord Almighty pro- 
nounces the heaviest maledictions of his holy law 
against this crime, and declares that no " idolater hath 
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." 
Heaven is closed against all such. 

Here, then, is our obligation — to save India from 
this fearful guilt, which is the cause of all her woe 
and sorrow, and turn her from her " dumb idols, to 
serve the living God." Glorious mission ! Honored 
forever will be the men and the women who are en- 
gaged in working out her redemption, and upon all 
who help and sympathize with them in their blessed 
toil. She can be redeemed. Already her salvation 
has commenced, and they have begun to " cast their 
idols to the moles and to the bats," and the blessed 
Christ is receiving them graciously, and saving their 
souls. Church of God, press on the work ! India 
is a glorious prize to win from the kingdom of dark- 
ness. The overthrow of her colossal and organized 



From Boston to Bareilly. 511 

heathenism would be the knell of doom to every other 
" false god" upon this earth. The Hindu Pantheon, 
with its millions of " abominable idolatries," would 
carry down in its ruin the polytheism of all Asia. 
That overthrow, when it comes, will realize to the 
heart of Christendom a thrill of victory more full and 
ecstatic than that heart has ever felt before. Heaven 
and earth will unite to celebrate this matchless fact of 
the Redeemer's triumph over the prostrate heathen- 
ism of the world. Long ago it was foretold that " the 
idols he shall utterly abolish," the hundreds of mill- 
ions of those in India included. Then will have come 
the glad hour when 

" To adorn the worship of the One 
A universe of gods has passed away," 

and " the Lord alone shall be exalted in the earth." 
Christian India! Redeemed at last from the sins 
and wrongs and sufferings which idolatry imposed 
upon her, and radiant then with all the graces and 
peace and joy of our holy faith ! It seems to me 
as though the devoted missionaries who have toiled 
for this consummation, " but died without the sight," 
would want to rise from the dead to behold this high- 
est triumph of Omnipotent grace. " The heart of 
Asia" will have been won for Christ, her adorable 
Lord and Master ; whom no doubt she will henceforth 
serve with an ardor worthy of those who have had 
" much forgiven," while her vast resources will be laid 



512 From Boston to Bakeilly. 

at his feet, and her part in spreading his glory in the 
earth be worthily done. Some one has anticipated 
that " day of days " in lines which I quote as I close : 

" No longer bestial, but in queenly mold, 

Beauteous in needle-work and woven gold, 

All Orient riches set on her large brow, 

And from her lips sweet song and holy vow ; 

Her sandaled foot and life-enkindling hand. 

Known by fair traces on her smiling land. 

Thus glorious, she will glide through peaceful years, 

The joy and wonder of applauding spheres, 

And Clirist will bear her henceforth honored name 

On the broad ensign of his conquering fame ! " 

Once more I desire to express the gratitude with 
which this work commenced, to the generous friends 
to whom we are indebted for the memorable oppor- 
tunity of this India visit — out of which, at their sug- 
gestion, this book has grown — to enable them to share 
with us, in some measure, what we were there privi- 
leged to see and enjoy. I conclude with my adoring 
acknowledgment of the kind providential care which 
was over us by day and night during the long journey 
of twenty-seven thousand miles, and which returned 
us in safety and health 

"Prom the glad Orient to the still-loved West." 



THE END. 



i 
i 



I 



